94-1
RCiAL PALACG-
OF SCOTLAND
Presented to the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
LIBRARY
by the
ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE
LIBRARY
1980
.
ROYAL PALACES OF
SCOTLAND
UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME
EDITED BY ROBERT S. RAIT
ROYAL PALACES OF ENGLAND.
Illustrated. Demy 8vo, 6s. net.
Studies of the historic Palaces of Hampton Court,
St. James's, Whitehall, Buckingham, Kensington and
Windsor Castle.
ENGLISH EPISCOPAL PALACES:
PROVINCE OF YORK. Illustrated.
Demy 8vo, 6s. net.
In a readable and popular form, this volume gives the
results of a considerable amount of research, more par-
ticularly with regard to the historical incidents enacted
in the palaces of York, Durham, Auckland and Carlisle,
and the personal associations of their inmates with them.
ENGLISH EPISCOPAL PALACES:
PROVINCE OF CANTERBURY. Illus-
trated. Demy 8vo, 6s. net.
" This volume is most entertaining from beginning to
end, and will be highly valued by all who wish to know
much of the life of the Church of England and of her
past Bishops."— Pall Mall Gazette.
u ^
a ^
o
S i
W
i-a
ROYAL PALACES OF
SCOTLAND
^
' "
BY
HELEN DOUGLAS-IRVINE, M.A. (ST. ANDREWS)
EDITED BY
R. S. RAIT
ILLUSTRATED
LONDON
CONSTABLE & COMPANY
1911
* ,
J>i
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON 5y Co.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh
(ftofc Bg $e d*>tfor of
i
book is a companion volume to the
series dealing with the Royal Palaces and
the Episcopal Palaces of England. That
series was inspired by work done for the
"Victoria History of the Counties of England," the
plan and scope of which prevented its writers from
using much of the interesting material accumulated
in the course of their investigations. No such mate-
rial has been available in the present instance, but the
author of this sketch of the Royal Palaces of Scot-
land is one of the staff of the "Victoria History,"
and she has employed to good purpose the experience
thus gained. The story of the dwellings of the Kings
of Scotland will, it is believed, not be found inferior in
interest to the volumes with which it is associated.
The opinions expressed in the book are those of the
writer.
ROBERT S. RAIT.
NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD,
August 1911.
Confenfe
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER I
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD PALACE . . 47
STIRLING CASTLE ... . .146
FALKLAND PALACE 2l8
LINLITHGOW PALACE 269
BALMORAL CASTLE 303
of
EDINBURGH CASTLE IN 1780
KILDRUMMY CASTLE ....
DOUNE CASTLE
DUMBARTON CASTLE ....
CRAIGMILLAR CASTLE ....
ABBEY AND PALACE OF DUNFERMLINE .
EDINBURGH CASTLE ....
HOLYROOD PALACE, FROM AN OLD PRINT
LOCHLEVEN CASTLE ....
HOLYROOD PALACE ....
STIRLING CASTLE IN 1781 .
STIRLING CASTLE
FALKLAND PALACE IN 1837 .
FALKLAND PALACE ....
PALACE OF LINLITHGOW IN 1782 .
LINLITHGOW PALACE
BALMORAL CASTLE, FROM AN ENGRAVING
BALMORAL
Frontispiece
Facing p. 16
„ 26
32
,,' 38
,» 42
48
72
n i°6
» 144
ii I52
„ 208
„ 218
„ 264
ii 270
„ 288
» 304
ii 312
THE royal palaces of Scotland, if the term be
taken to denote those houses of the kings
which served them as residences, have a
place in the constitutional and political
history of the country.
It is probable that the early Celtic kings quartered
themselves with their attendants on different subjects
in turn. Thus the obligation of the nation to support
a sovereign was maintained. As the character of the
kingly office changed from that of a chieftain to that
of a landlord, there came to be demesne lands of the
crown and in them palaces. Even, however, in the
tenth and eleventh centuries, when for practical pur-
poses the kingdom was bounded by the Forth and the
Tay, the king would seem to have passed from house
to house within his narrow dominions.
Perhaps the practice arose from the necessity of
providing fresh pastures for needy retainers. These
were probably, as they were in Welsh courts, not
courtiers but attendants or servants, who acquired by
their duties no dignity. In Wales they belonged to
the class of lesser freemen.
In the end of the eleventh and in the early twelfth
century, when the influence of England made itself
felt in Scotland, there was a change in the manners
and the customs of the court. Some ceremony and a
degree of luxury were introduced ; the courtiers were
A
2 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
chosen from the highest class, and came to be associated
so closely with nobility that their office acquired power
itself to confer rank. Thus the Scottish court ap-
proximated to the continental rather than to the Welsh
or Irish model.
The greater stateliness was facilitated by an im-
provement in architecture, of which there is evidence
in the many churches and religious houses built by
David I., and which must have been accompanied by
an increased skill in the lesser decorative arts.
As the kingdom expanded to its present limits the
wandering habits of the court increased. David I.
incorporated this practice of his ancestors in the policy
which he borrowed from the Norman kings of Eng-
land. Like William I. he built all over his country
strong keeps ; and he and his descendants kept their
court at one after the other of these. Scotland until
the union of the crowns had always a weak central
government, because of her poverty and because of
the strong local influence of her great families. As
previously it was expedient that the burden of sup-
porting the royal household should be borne in turn
by different districts. Moreover it was wise to cause
to be felt from time to time in every part of the land
the military and the judicial strength of the monarchy.
In England a like end was attained by a connection
with the central power of local institutions.
The early houses of Scottish kings were probably
all to some extent fortresses. The history of some of
them ended with the War of Independence, because it
was the policy of Robert the Bruce to demolish strong-
holds of which the enemy might take advantage. His
resources were inadequate to maintaining garrisons in
all the castles of David I. as well as an army in
the field. The number of royal castles was further
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
diminished by the grants made by the Bruce to attach
to himself his followers or to reward them ; and by
the piety of David II., that " sair sanct to the crown,"
who endowed so many religious foundations.
The first two Stewart kings, Robert II. and Robert
III., are among the least efficient of Scottish rulers.
They lived much in remote parts of the kingdom, led
apparently by a fondness for the hereditary possessions
of their family and by a love of hunting. To this
failure to carry about with them in constant progresses
order and peace, have been ascribed some of the diffi-
culties which James I. and James II. encountered in
seeking to hold in check the turbulent nobles and their
followers.
The repressive policy of these latter kings entailed
many forfeitures, and thus increased the number of
houses which were crown property. In this period
however, the fifteenth century, there came to be a
distinction between a castle and a palace. A time of
comparative peace and order rendered it unnecessary
for kings to live immured within fortresses ; the
ancient keeps were inadequate for the entertainment
of their households, their ministers, and their guests ;
and the Renascence had come to Scotland and brought
wider needs and the ability to supply them. More-
over the skilful government of James IV. made the
country unprecedentedly wealthy.
Thus castles were converted into palaces, or
castles were abandoned as residences and new palaces
built in their place. To the first class belong Stir-
ling and Linlithgow ; to the second, Holyrood and
Falkland.
The kings still wandered from house to house ;
and both the political and the economic reasons sub-
sisted to maintain the practice. The ancient policy
4 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
is evinced in the building of some new fortresses.
In connection with the economy of Scotland, it is
notable that the parliament, a somewhat exotic growth,
granted to the king few and small subsidies, that he
depended largely on the rents of his demesne lands, and
that these were frequently paid in kind. The situation
of the palaces was greatly determined by that of the
lordships of the crown ; the king travelled from place
to place, in order to consume the produce of his
possessions, as well as to make his power felt through-
out the land.
The courtiers who accompanied him were persons
of importance. The kingcraft of the Stewarts was
exercised to a great extent through the medium of
favourites, often persons who owed entirely to them
positions of power ; consequently the court, like the
Church, provided a sphere for the ambitious. It was
none the less burdensome to the district on which
it was quartered.
It is difficult to discover the extent to which the
royal progresses and the sojourns of the court were
oppressive to the productive classes. There was
much simplicity in the court as compared with those
of England and of France ; and probably the small-
ness of the population and the poverty of the country
always prevented such social distinctions as deprive
the labouring classes of power of expression. At the
same time all the institutions of Scotland, this of
travelling monarchs like the others, were fitted to
oppress; and the land was so poor, that the people
called upon to supply the needs of their sovereign
can have had little, if any, marginal wealth.
To ascertain the exact date at which most of
the fortresses were abandoned as residences is im-
possible. In the fifteenth century the sovereigns
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 5
were often lodged in monasteries or in the houses
of burghers, in places in which their ancestors had
inhabited the castles. At the same time, even in
the early sixteenth century, kings are known to have
dwelt at times in strongholds.
Queen Mary was less of a wanderer than any of
her predecessors. She may be said to have lived at
Holyrood, and thence to have visited other parts
of her dominions. From this time Holyrood was
the royal palace of Scotland, that which was associated
with the conception of the country as a separate king-
dom. James VI., from the date of the attainment
of his majority, generally spent his winters in it ;
but his love of sport led him to pass much time
in houses more rurally situated. The Stewart kings,
after they had succeeded to the English throne, visited
as royal palaces of Scotland, Holyrood, Stirling, Falk-
land, Linlithgow, and Dunfermline. With the power
of the English government behind them, with the
increased prestige of their new position, it was as un-
necessary for them as it would have been distasteful,
to sojourn in the less important houses which belonged
to the crown.
Of all the historical palaces only Holyrood has
been able to preserve until modern times a vestige
of kingly dignity. The others are ruins, barracks,
or the dwelling-places of subjects. In the nineteenth
century, however, Scotland assumed a new relation to
England. It had been regarded as a land poverty-
stricken, deficient in all the graces of civilisation, and
savagely hideous, which Anne and the Georges were
glad to be able to govern without personal visits.
The poets taught an appreciation of grandeur in
nature, and the advantages of Scotland for sport
were discovered. Thus, late in the nineteenth cen-
6 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
tury, there came to be the royal houses of Balmoral
and Abergeldie ; and royal personages were frequently
in Scotland, and, like the Stewart kings, united by
their sojourns the attainment of a political object and
the gratification of a love of sport.
The architecture of Scottish castles and palaces
is treated exhaustively by Messrs. MacGibbon and Ross
in their " Castellated and Domestic Architecture of
Scotland," and it is necessary only to summarise their
conclusions.
There are no remains to give evidence of the
structure of the twelfth-century castles ; but it is
probable that, like the Norman keeps, they were
built of stone and lime. In the thirteenth century
castles were certainly constructed in such manner.
Their plan was that of a <c large fortified en-
closure," which, with some exceptions, was roughly
quadrilateral, and which frequently had in the angles
round or square towers. Rothesay is peculiar in
having an oval plan. The curtain walls were from
seven to nine feet thick, and from twenty to thirty feet
high. The gateway was wide, and protected by a
portcullis ; and there was sometimes also a postern
door. It is surmised that the garrison was lodged
within the angle towers, and that there were other
buildings within the enclosure which leant against the
curtain walls. The allusions to the flocks and herds
of the castles, to the practice of using castles as places
of refuge for the neighbouring populations, explain
the great area of the enclosures. The site of these
castles is, as a rule, comparatively low, and appears to
have been determined by the presence of a water
supply.
In the fourteenth century, after the devastations
of the invading armies of England, castles were built
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
on a simpler plan, designed as the most defensible.
Usually they were merely square or round towers,
which were defended from a parapet at the roof; but
in some instances a small wing made an L-shaped
building. The ground floor was vaulted, and was
used as a storehouse or a stable ; it had sometimes
a loft in which servants slept. Often it communicated
with the first floor only by a hatch. On the first floor
was the chief entrance, reached by a movable staircase
or ladder which led into the hall, the living-room of
the castle. This occupied the whole of a story, and
had a vaulted roof; but, as a rule, its upper part was
cut off by a wooden floor, and contained several rooms.
Above was another story in which were private apart-
ments ; and there was generally a yet higher chamber,
sometimes vaulted, which carried the roof. In the
thickness of the walls there might be chambers ; and
there was at one corner the staircase which led from
the hall to the upper stories and roof.
The roof was generally of stone slabs, and had
a gutter which was drained through projecting
gargoyles, plain or carved. There was a parapet
walk, uninterrupted by chimney-stacks since these
were carried up on the inner side of the thick
walls.
Round the castles was a courtyard enclosed by
a wall and sometimes of considerable extent, and
defended by towers. The expansion of fourteenth-
century keeps to meet the needs of a later age was
possible through the existence of this court, in which
additional buildings could be erected, and which could
gradually be absorbed into the castle itself.
The last period in which historical castles or
palaces were built in Scotland was that of the Jameses,
from 1406 to 1542. Its peculiar architecture is
8 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
distinct ; it is that of houses built or adapted to
surround courtyards.
In Doune and other earlier castles a keep forms
part of the buildings ; but a keep larger than its
prototypes, which has on each story more accom-
modation, and has additional towers both to furnish
other rooms and for purposes of defence. It has a
separate entrance and can be separately defended.
The other buildings which are round the courtyard
are the reception or banqueting halls, the chapel,
the state-rooms, and the kitchens and offices. The
entrance is generally a vaulted passage which passes
under part of the building into the quadrangle, and is
defended by a portcullis or gates.
In such later examples of architecture of this type
as Stirling and Linlithgow the defensive features are
less developed, and the state and domestic apartments
are more commodious and numerous. The design
is more luxurious and fanciful ; and latterly the
ornament shows the influence of the Renascence.
Keeps of the fourteenth-century pattern were still
built under the Jameses ; but they show in points of
detail a great modification of style. They and the
quadrangular castles were alike, according to ancient
use, defensible from the battlements. The effect of
the introduction of guns is shown by the port-holes
and embrasures found in buildings of the period.
It is proposed in this introduction to give an
account of royal houses, other than Holyrood,
Stirling, Falkland, Linlithgow, and Balmoral, in which
kings of Scotland have dwelt, and to notice some
stages in the development of the court.
The various provinces of which Scotland was
made were united in the ninth and tenth centuries
under the rule of Kenneth MacAlpin and his sue-
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
cessors. Kenneth died at his palace of Fort Teviot,
or Dun Fothir, on the Earn ; and his kingdom passed
to his brother Donald, whose death occurred, accord-
ing to one chronicler, at his palace of Cuin Belachoir,
according to another at Loch Adhbha, or " the loch
of the palace." But the chief residence of royalty in
this period came to be Scone, the capital, called
" civitas regalis" under Constantine II., who ruled
from 900 to 943, and who held on the Moot Hill of
Scone an ecclesiastical assembly. Fordun relates that
Malcolm II., king from 1005 to 1034, when he gave
away all Scotland, reserved for himself only the Moot
Hill of Scone. The tale, probably founded on tradi-
tions of the introduction of feudalism into Scotland,
preserves the fact that Scone was pre-eminently a royal
place. Its kingly associations survived until modern
times, for it remained the place at which rulers of
Scotland must be crowned.
Its situation was central in the early kingdom,
and had the advantage of proximity to the river Tay.
The house of the kings is said to have stood on the
site of the later palace begun by the Earl of Gowrie,
who raised the conspiracy of 1600, the palace which
has in its turn been replaced by a modern building.
There is no evidence as to the structure of the ancient
house. Mr. E. W. Robertson considers it probable
that Malcolm II. first abandoned the habits of kings
who dwelt successively with different nobles, and
established at Scone a fixed court.
Before the days of Malcolm II., Edinburgh had been
ceded to the Scots ; and in the reign of Malcolm Can-
more, who ruled from 1058 to 1093, another palace
became a frequent dwelling-place of kings, that of Dun-
fermline. When Malcolm married the Saxon princess
Margaret in 1070, he held at Dunfermline a tower of
io ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
which the foundations are still to be seen on the mound
surrounded on three sides by the Linn burn, in the
grounds of Pittencrieff and a little to the west of the
later palace. It was at Dunfermline that Margaret
spent most of her life as a queen, and that her children
were born ; and from her confessor Turgot we learn
the manner in which her time was passed. Her chief
work was the foundation of Dunfermline Abbey, which
" she beautified with rich gifts of various kinds,
amongst which, as is well known, were many vessels
of pure and solid gold for the sacred service of the
altar.'* Her chamber in the palace was a very school
of embroidery. " It was, so to speak, a workshop of
sacred art : in which copes for the cantors, chasubles,
stoles, altar-cloths, together with other priestly vest-
ments and church ornaments of an admirable beauty
were always to be seen, either already made or in
course of preparation. These works were entrusted
to certain women of noble birth and approved gravity
of manners, who were thought worthy of a part in the
queen's service. No men were admitted among them,
with the exception only of such as she permitted to
enter along with herself when she paid the women an
occasional visit. No giddy pertness was allowed in
them, no light familiarity between them and men ;
for the queen united so much strictness with her
sweetness of temper, so great pleasantness even with
her severity, that all who waited upon her, men as well
as women, loved her while they feared her, and in
fearing loved her." Turgot tells of the strict up-
bringing of the royal children, and that "during the
solemnities of the Mass, when they went up to
make offerings after their parents, never on any
occasion did the younger venture to precede the
elder; the custom being for the elder to go before
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER n
the younger according to the order of their
birth."
The queen was very charitable. " When she went
out of doors, either on foot or on horseback, crowds
of poor people, orphans, and widows flocked to her
as they would have done to a most loving mother,
and none of them left without being comforted.
But when she had distributed all she had brought
with her for the benefit of the needy, the rich who
accompanied her, or her own attendants, used to hand
to her their garments, or anything else they happened
to have by them at the time, that she might give
them to those who were in want ; for she was anxious
that none should go away in distress. Nor were her
attendants at all offended, nay, rather each strove who
should first offer her what he had, since he knew for
certain that she would pay it back twofold. Now
and then she helped herself to something or other out
of the king's private property, it mattered not what it
was, to give to a poor person ; and this pious plun-
dering the king always took pleasantly and in good
part." In the seasons of Lent and Advent the alms-
giving and the religious exercises of the queen re-
doubled, and her life was one of extraordinary sanctity.
She spent much time in church ; daily she washed the
feet of six poor persons and fed them ; and every
morning she gave food to nine little orphans. " She
did not think it beneath her to take them upon her
knee." Moreover, every day three hundred persons
were brought into the royal hall. " The king on the
one side and the queen on the other waited on Christ
in the person of His poor, and served them with food
and drink." In addition, throughout the year she
supported twenty-four poor people. " It was her will
that wherever she lived they also should be living in
12 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
the neighbourhood, wherever she went they were to
accompany her."
Such pious details chiefly constitute the earliest
description of a Scottish court. We can picture the
many poor, Scots and English fugitives from the Con-
queror's severities, who must constantly have thronged
the entrances to the palace, and crowded around the
queen as she passed to the abbey church, or rode or
walked in the country of Fife. On the road to
Queensferry, rather more than a mile from Dunferm-
line, there is still to be seen a stone in the form of
a seat, on which, according to tradition, Queen
Margaret sat, when she wished in the open fields to
give free access to all suppliants.
It was Margaret who began a new epoch in the
history of the court of Scotland by the introduction
of some of the stateliness to which she had been
accustomed in more southern lands. There was in
her character a regard for form to which outward
pomp made appeal. She " arranged that persons of
a higher position should be appointed for the king's
service, a large number of whom were to accompany
him in state whenever he either walked or rode abroad.
This body was brought to such discipline that, wher-
ever they came, none of them was suffered to take
anything from any one, nor did they dare in any way
to oppress or injure country people or the poor.
Further, she introduced so much state into the
royal palace that not only was it brightened by the
many colours of the apparel worn in it, but the whole
dwelling blazed with gold and silver; the vessels
employed for serving the food and drink to the king
and to the nobles of the realm were of gold and silver,
or were at least gold-plated." Moreover, " through
her suggestion new costumes of different fashions were
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 13
adopted, the elegance of which made the wearers
appear like a new race of beings ; " and Lord Hailes
has conjectured that she invented tartan. Turgot
apologises for the seeming worldliness of these cares.
" All this the queen did, not because the honour of
the world delighted her, but because duty compelled
her to discharge what the kingly dignity required.
For even as she walked in state, robed in royal splen-
dour, she, like another Esther, in her heart trod all
these trappings under foot, and bade herself remem-
ber that beneath the gems and gold lay only dust and
ashes."
Under the immediate successors of Malcolm III.,
Donald Bane, Duncan, Edgar, and Alexander I., the
country between the Forth and the Tay was still the
central part of the kingdom ; and the kings lived at
Dunfermline, Stirling, and Scone. Alexander I. dwelt
also at Invergowrie, on the Firth of Tay : —
" In Invergowry a sesowne
Wyth an honest curt he bade
For there a maner-plas he hade,
And all the land by and by
Wes his demayne than halyly."
And after a successful expedition to the north,
" Syne he sped him wyth gret hy
Hame agayne til Invergowry
And in devotyowne movyd, swne
The Abbay he fowndyd than of Scwne.
Fra Saynt Oswaldis of Ingland
Chanownis he browcht to be serwand
God and Saynt Mychael, regulare
In-til Saynt Awstynys ordyr thare."
Among the lands which, with the consent of his queen
Sibylla, Alexander granted to the abbey were ten
carucates of his estate of Invergowrie, and these must
i4 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
have included the site of his house. It is said
traditionally to have stood on a field on the farm of
Menzieshill, a little to the north of Invergowrie
House.
In Scone Abbey the ancient palace was probably
incorporated, but it continued to be a frequent resi-
dence of kings. According to one theory there was
already in the place a settlement of Culdees, whom
the Augustinian monks replaced. The monastic
buildings were destroyed by the iconoclasts of 1559.
David L, the brother and successor of Alexander,
who reigned from 1124 to 1153, was an innovator.
He was an architect king, who remitted three years'
rent and tribute to all of his subjects willing to
improve their dwellings, as well as the fashion of their
dress and their manner of living ; and it may be
concluded that his tastes were exercised in the royal
palaces. Moreover, he was probably the founder of
most of the Anglo-Norman keeps which Edward I.
found in the country.
Under David the Lothians and Strathclyde were
made directly subject to the crown ; and the centre of
government shifted to the lands south of the Forth.
From this time until the death of Alexander III. in
1286, kings of Scotland dwelt much in the castles
of Roxburgh, Peebles, and Traquair. David kept
his court also at Scone, Berwick, Elbottle, Glasgow,
Cadzow, Strath Irewin, Abernethy, and Banff. He
held most of the earldom of Northumberland during
the greater part of his reign, and he was frequently at
Newcastle.
At Roxburgh and Peebles the castles were fort-
resses : that of Peebles stood at the head of the High
Street, and commanded the peninsula formed by the
Tweed and the Eddleston. Traquair is said to have
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 15
been a hunting seat of the kings, and a forest
belonged to it: between 1133 and 1142 David made
a grant of the wood and timber of his forests of
" Selesckircke and Traocquair." The ancient castle,
or part of it, may have been incorporated in Traquair
House.
The king's early education had been received in
England ; and he continued his mother's work of
introducing into the Scottish court some of the cere-
mony and the refinement which obtained in that of
the Norman kings. Previously to his reign the only
court officers appear to have been the constable, the
justiciary, and the chancellor. Under David there
were also a chamberlain and a mareschal ; and the
hereditary seneschalship, from which the Stewarts
derived their dignity and name, was created. In
another respect King David observed Margaret's
tradition. "I have seen him," says his biographer,
the abbot Aelred, " with his foot in the stirrup going
to hunt, at the prayer of a poor petitioner leave his
horse, return into the hall, give up his purpose for
the day, and kindly and patiently hear the cause. . . .
He often used to sit at the door of the palace, to hear
the causes of the poor and old, who were warned
upon certain days as he came into each district."
Malcolm IV. or the Maiden, the successor of
David, died at Jedburgh in 1165. This castle had
probably, like Roxburgh, been built by David to
defend his border. Berwick, Roxburgh, and Jed-
burgh Castles were, with those of Edinburgh and
Stirling, ceded to Henry II. of England by William
the Lion at the treaty of Falaise.
The existing tower of Clackmannan dates from
the fourteenth century, but the estate was held by
the crown under David I., and it would appear that
1 6 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
in the reign of William the Lion it comprised a royal
residence. That king in 1195 fell so alarmingly ill
at Clackmannan that he assembled his nobles ; and,
since as yet he had no son, announced to them that
he would appoint as his successor Otho of Saxony,
who must marry the Scottish princess, Margaret. In
1203 William lay sick of a tedious illness at
Traquair.
He was much in the north of Scotland : his char-
ters are dated from Forfar, Aberdeen, Nairn, Forres,
Elgin, and Inverness, and in all these places there
were castles in 1292. It is probable that most of them
were founded by David I. : Inverness Castle is known
to have existed in his reign ; but at Aberdeen King
William himself built a house. It stood on the site of
the modern Guild Street, between the Green and the
Dee, and William afterwards granted it as a monastery
to the Red Friars. The " fair castle," which was
visited by Edward I., and had some military import-
ance, was erected by Alexander III. Forres Castle,
which is not represented by the modern ruins, stood
on an eminence to the west of the town, and was
surrounded by the Mosset burn. There was a castle
at Elgin in the reign of Malcolm the Maiden ; and
in it William the Lion granted a house, together with
a net on the water of Spey, to Yothre MacGilhys
and his heirs " for the service of one Serjeant, and
being in the Scottish army." Nairn Castle was situated
near the modern High Street.
Under Alexander II. seven towers were added to
the royal castle of Kildrummy in Perthshire, called
the " snow tower " ; and there were other castles of
the king at Kinclevin and at Rutherglen. A clause
in the king's marriage treaty provided for the free
entry of the queen into the latter palace, which is said
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 17
to have stood near the intersection of King Street and
Castle Street.
In the reign of Alexander III., king from 1249
to 1286, fuller details exist as to the movements of
the king. In addition to the castles which have
been mentioned, there were in 1292 those of Dum-
fries, Kirkcudbright, Wigtown, Ayr, Tarbet, Dum-
barton, Dundee, Kincardine, Cromarty, and Dingwall ;
and throughout the country there were many other
halls and manors of the king. Alexander III. was
often at Stirling, Linlithgow, and Edinburgh. At
Jedburgh his second queen, Yoletta, kept a stud ; and
900 perches of hedge and ditch were constructed
in 1288 round the wood and meadows of the castle
at a cost of ^5, i6s. 6d. There was a royal castle at
Crail in 1264; its rooms were repaired, and wages
were paid to the keeper of the rabbit warrens. At
Invercullen or Cullen, Cowie, and Durris there were
houses of the king. The sheriff of Banff in 1266 had
spent certain sums on the repair of the royal hall at
Cullen, and on furnishing it with brewing utensils.
At Cowie, on a rock which overlooks the sea, there are
still ruins of a fortalice ; and Castle Hill, on the banks
of the Dee at Durris, probably marks the site of the
ancient castle. In 1263 Alexander broke a journey
at Kettins, and the cost is recorded in the next year
of building there a new hall and mending the ward-
robe. This may have occurred at Dores Castle, which
stood on a hill to the south of Kettins village in
Forfarshire. The king is known to have been at
Aberdeen, Kintore, Forres, and Elgin. The remains
of a fourteenth-century keep, the castle of Hallforest
near Kintore, are still to be seen, and may occupy
the site of his house. At Kincardine a new park
was made ; and in the castle of Inverness a domus
»
1 8 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
Scoticana and a wardrobe were constructed. On a
wooded hill near the town there are ruins of Kin-
cardine Palace. Wood appears to have been the
material chiefly employed in all building operations.
In the summer of 1263, Alexander, with his queen
Johanna of England, and probably with their infant
daughter, held his court for twenty-nine weeks and
two days at Forfar Castle. There is record of the
provisioning of the royal household with 48 beeves,
25 swine from the neighbouring forest, 30 sheep
from Barry, and 40 from the grange of Strathylif or
Glenisla, 311 fowls, 60 stone of cheese, 17 chalders
1 1 bolls of malt, 3 chalders 2 bolls of barley, 38
chalders 8 bolls of fodder, and other special supply of
barley and fodder for the queen. From Cluny lake
700 eels were procured for the king and nine
score for the queen. Such was the food of the in-
habitants of the castle. It was heated by peat fires,
for an allowance of barley was made to the man who
carried peats into the tower.
The chief amusement of the court appears to have
been hunting. The stables must have been well filled,
for there is mention of twenty-three horses killed in
the royal service. Other records are of payments to
the king's falconer and groom, of the provision of food
for a bitch and her puppies. Wages were received
also by a gardener and a swineherd. Six and a half
marks were supplied to Augustin the tailor that,
in obedience to the king's precept, he might go
from Forfar to the fair of Dundee to buy cloth
and fur.
Those houses of kings which were strongholds had
most of them a military history during the War of
Independence and afterwards. Some which continued
crown property were not again royal residences. The
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 19
border castles, Roxburgh, Jedburgh, and Berwick,
proved to be a source of weakness rather than strength
to the country in which they stood, for they generally
were held by the English ; and there are famous stories
of sieges of them by the Scots. In 1314 Sir James
Douglas caused his followers to conceal their armour
beneath black frocks in such manner that they were
mistaken at twilight for cattle, and were suffered to
approach near to Roxburgh Castle. They climbed the
walls and gained possession of the fortress, which after-
wards was demolished by Bruce. But it was rebuilt ;
and returned to the tenure of England until in 1342
the exploit of Sir William Ramsay of Dalhousie re-
stored it for a short time to the Scots. Its capture
was vainly endeavoured by James I. in 1435 > an^
James II. repeated the attempt in 1460, to be killed
by one of his own guns. The siege was, however,
brought to a successful end by his queen, Mary of
Gueldres, and thereafter the castle was again de-
molished. Nevertheless Somerset was able in 1547
to restore the ruins to an extent which allowed them
to be garrisoned.
Jedburgh Castle, of which no trace remains, was
held continuously by the English from the battle of
Neville's Cross until 1409, when the men of the middle
class of Teviotdale (mediocres Thevedaliai) seized, plun-
dered, and demolished it. It was, however, rebuilt,
and in 1523 it was captured by Surrey and Dacre, and
" soo suerly brent," according to information sent to
Henry VIII., " that no garnisons ner none other shal
be lodged there, unto the tyme it bee new buylded."
That such new building took place does not appear.
The fortunes of Berwick, which alternately belonged to
one and the other of the countries which bordered
on its site, were various : the castle was strengthened
20 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
by Edward I. and repaired by Robert the Bruce, and
finally was ruined by the neglect of Queen Elizabeth.
Peebles Castle was dismantled by Robert I. That
of Forres is said to have been burnt by the Scots in
1297. Inverness Castle fell during the wars ; but was
rebuilt in the fifteenth century, and had a military
importance down to the Jacobite rising of 1715.
Elgin Castle also was demolished in the War of
Independence ; its chapel, however, was still in use
in the sixteenth century. Forfar was overthrown in
1308.
Kildrummy Castle provided a shelter for certain
great ladies ; and under the command of Nigel Bruce
and the Earl of Athol it withstood a siege until in 1 306
it was betrayed by an English sympathiser. Then the
garrison were hanged, drawn, and quartered ; Nigel
and the Earl were executed, the one at Berwick and
the other at London ; and Lady Buchan and Marjorie
Bruce were imprisoned in cages, at Berwick and at
Roxburgh. The Queen and Lady Mar, who were also
in the castle, were treated with less severity. Lady
Mar is said to have been sent to a convent. The castle
in 1338 was held for the young king, David II., by
Lady Christian Bruce.
In this period several castles were alienated from
the crown. Robert I. gave Dingwall to the Earl of
Ross, and is said to have granted Hallforest to the
Marischal, Sir Robert de Keith ; Kildrummy came to
be held by the Earls of Mar, and Cadzow by the
Hamiltons ; Clackmannan was granted by David II.
to a relative of the family of Bruce ; and Traquair
passed to the Morays, who held it until the forfeiture
of William de Moray in 1464. The constabulary of
Nairn Castle became hereditary in the family of Cawdor.
Kinclevin was granted by Robert II. to his illegitimate
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 21
son, John Stewart ; but the estate eventually reverted
to the crown.
King Robert I. in the peaceful remnant of his reign
lived chiefly at Tarbert and at Cardross, and probably
at Perth.
The ruins of Tarbert Castle are still to be seen on
the shore of the creek called Loch Tarbert on the west
side of Loch Fyne. They stand some sixty feet above
the level of the sea. Bruce probably added the base-
court of the castle, in which stood its greater part, and
he built also within the structure a dwelling-house.
Under the year 1326 there are records of the making
of a hall, a chapel, a bakery, brewery and kitchen, a
wine-cellar, a moat about the castle, a mill, mill-dam
and kiln, and a goldsmith's shop. There are refer-
ences to a visit to the castle of Lamberton, Bishop of
St. Andrews, and Lord James Douglas, for whose
chambers litter was provided, and in honour of whom
the hall was decorated with branches of birch. In
1328 Patrick the Fool journeyed from England to
Tarbert.
The manor of Cardross, on the banks of the Clyde,
was acquired by the king in 1326 in exchange for the
lands of Old Montrose. The place of the castle is
marked by Castle Hill. Here in his later years the
great king occupied himself with the improvement of a
dwelling-house, and of parks and gardens. He made
a new chamber surrounded by a stone wall ; glass-work
was inserted in the windows; in 1328 the chamberlain
accounted for ten shillings spent on verdigris and olive
oil for the painting of the king's chamber. Great
boards were used for the repair of the park, and wages
were paid to a huntsman, a park-keeper, a girnal-man
and a keeper of the manor, and a gardener. A house
for falcons was repaired and enclosed by a hedge.
22 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
The foundation of Dunfermline Palace, as distinct
from the tower of Malcolm Canmore, is also ascribed
to Robert the Bruce. In the winter of 1 303 Edward I.
was in the abbey ; and on leaving it he caused the build-
ings to be burnt and demolished. King Robert is said
to have restored the monastery, and to have added the
palace on its south-west side. There is in the eastern
part of the existing ruins work which seems to belong
to an earlier period, to the beginning of the thirteenth
century ; but the south front appears indeed to have
been erected by the Bruce and his successors of the
fourteenth century. At this palace in 1323 occurred
the birth of the prince afterwards David II. In 1329
the queen gave a frontal to the altar of the abbey.
On the 9th of June 1329 the Bruce died at Card-
ross Castle. Froissart relates the tale of his death,
how when he felt that it behoved him to die he
summoned all his barons and charged them loyally to
support his son David. Then he called to him his
dear friend, the gentle knight, the Lord James of
Douglas, and told him of a vow he once had made to
go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. To fulfil it in
his lifetime had not been granted to him ; but he now
asked the Douglas to carry thither his heart. All
who were present wept when they heard ; but at last
the Douglas spoke, and promised as a true knight
right willingly to obey his king's behest. The story
of the death of Douglas in a combat with the Saracens
and of the bringing back to Scotland of Bruce's heart
is well known.
At Perth there was a castle which was a residence of
kings until it fell into disrepair, when the Blackfriars
monastery took its place. Here was kept a lion, a
pet of King Robert ; and in the town was the dwell-
ing-place of Master Mavinus, the royal physician.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 23
Elizabeth, the queen of Robert the Bruce, died some
six months before him at Cullen.
After the death of Robert, the eight year old king
David II., with the queen he had married a year pre-
viously and his sisters Matilda and Margaret, still
lived at Cardross. New gardens were constructed ; a
ditch was made around the park ; the chambers of the
king, the princesses, and the regent, the king's hall
and chapel, the wardrobe and chapel of the queen,
and the kitchen, larder, brewhouse, bakehouse, and
wine-cellar, were repaired.
In November 1331 the king was crowned at Scone.
On this occasion his sisters and his aunt, Lady Chris-
tian Bruce, appear to have occupied one chamber in
Scone Palace. Curtains of canvas were provided for
the chambers of the queen and of the regent ; and a
large stock of napery was bought, as well as towelling
for baths.
David and his queen lived from 1334 until 1341
at the famous Chateau Gaillard in Normandy. On
their return to their country the king, now of full age,
travelled about Scotland, as was the habit of his race.
He was at Kildrummy, Ayr, Scone, Inverkeithing,
Cupar, Banff, Aberdeen, Perth, and Dundee. In 1343
he was with Queen Johanna at Dunfermline Palace.
After his release from captivity in England in 1357
he made frequent visits to the English court, and
these probably account in part for the lavish expendi-
ture of his household, especially after his second mar-
riage to Margaret Logic. That queen had her own
officers, a chamberlain, a clerk of liverance, and a
clerk of the wardrobe. There is mention in this reign
of the pipers of the king.
The first Stewart king, Robert II., was like his
descendants a lover of sport. On several occasions in
24 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
his reign sums were paid to the clerks of the house-
hold and of the wardrobe for the king's expenses while
he hunted at Kyndrochyt. The ruins of this castle,
which acquired from its later owners, the Earls of Mar,
the name of Braemar, stand on a rock near Cluny
burn. They are in a wild and mysterious country, in
the circle of the Cairngorm Mountains. Provisions
for King Robert were sent repeatedly to Bute, whence
it is evident that he was often at Rothesay Castle, that
thirteenth-century keep of the Stewarts of Scotland,
of which the towers still command Rothesay Bay.
There are records, too, of sojourns of Robert II. at
Inverkeithing, Glenalmond, Forfar, Inverness, Perth,
Methven, Cambuskenneth, Arnele, Glenconglas,Ruther-
glen, Cupar, St. Andrews, Glasgow, Scone, Cowie,
Aberdeen, Strathbraan, and Montrose. Methven Castle
was, like Rothesay, a possession of the Stewarts ; and
was granted by the king to his son Walter, Earl of
Athol.
In June 1389 King Robert, who with all his mag-
nates was holding his court at Dunfermline, received
at that place an embassy of two French knights, and
of Nicholas Dagworth and another Englishman, all of
them come to treat for peace. They were made wel-
come, and they delivered long and eloquent orations
with such success that the king conceded their de-
mands. Wine, spices, and cloth were bought to make
pleasant their reception ; the king gave four horses to
the Frenchmen, and to one of the Englishmen a horse
worth ,£10.
The death of Robert II. occurred at another here-
ditary house of the Stewarts, Dundonald Castle in
Ayrshire, on the i3th of May 1390, when at last
peace had come to his country, and when only three
Scottish castles, those of Berwick, Jedburgh, and Rox-
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 25
burgh, were still held by the English. Dundonald
Castle, a conspicuous object on the summit of a steep
and isolated hill, was one of the most important of
fourteenth-century keeps.
Robert III. is heard of at Scone, Perth, Cowie,
North Berwick, Dunfermline, Haddington, Dumbar-
ton, Irvine, Rothesay, and Aberdeen. In October
1390 he was at Logierait in Athol ; and in 1397-8
iron, boards, and salt were sent thither for his use.
His castle of Logierait is said to have stood on the hill
near that village where there is now a Celtic cross
erected to the memory of the sixth Duke of Athol.
Dunfermline Palace was the birthplace of James I.
According to Bower, Robert III., after he had
heard of the capture of his son James by the English,
died of a broken heart at Rothesay Castle ; and the
room in which his death is believed to have occurred
is still pointed out in the ruins of the keep. Wyntoun,
however, who, unlike Bower, rightly dates the death
of the king on St. Ambrose's Day in 1406, relates
that
" Robert the Thrid, cure Lord the King,
Made at Dundonald his endyng."
King James I., after his return from England and
his coronation at Scone in 1424, was for some time at
Dundee. In 1427 he travelled northwards with the
queen to hold a parliament at Inverness ; and tents,
paniers, " rubbouris," canvas, and nineteen gowns for
the keepers of the queen's horses were supplied for the
journey. Otherwise there is proof that the royal house-
hold were at Dunfermline, Perth, and Haddington.
The magnificent castle of Doune, which is one of
the best examples of the quadrangular architecture
of the fifteenth century, was built by Murdoch, Duke
26 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
of Albany, and was, like Falkland, forfeited to the crown
in 1424. It had superseded an earlier structure, the
seat of the Earls of Menteith, which came into the
possession of Robert, the great Duke of Albany, on
his marriage to Margaret, Countess of Menteith. In
1431 it was the dwelling-place of James, Duke of
Rothesay, the heir to the throne, then six months old,
for whose use forty-eight pounds of almonds were sent
to it.
James I. built a palace at Leith which served as a
lodging for himself and as a storehouse in connection
with his shipbuilding operations. There is evidence
of the work of construction in 1428, and again in
1434 and 1435. In 1435 Robert Gray was master
of the works of the barge and palace of Leith. This
king modified the arrangements of the royal house-
hold. He took from the chamberlain a part of
his functions to divide them among a comptroller, a
steward of the king's house, a clerk of the spices, and
a treasurer of the household ; and money for pro-
vision for the court was received also by the keeper of
the privy seal and secretary. Greater luxury was
introduced into the palaces : we hear of the import
from the Netherlands of a canopy and curtains and
two pairs of sheets for the king's bed, a gold salt-cellar
set with pearls, and tapestries wrought with the royal
arms, as well as jewellery and articles of dress and
military equipment. Giles, a tapestry-man of Bruges,
received j£8 for manufacturing cloth of arras for the
Scottish king, and the royal cellars were replenished
with Rhenish wine. From the Low Countries came
also, to serve King James, first three and then four
players, of whom Martin Vanantyne signed a receipt
for money disbursed for their voyage ; and in the
ship called Skippare Henry William Wik brought
w a
II
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 27
their clothes. Presumably the Dutchmen performed
in Latin. Their advent marks the beginning of that
taste of the Scottish court for dramatic representation
which was afterwards supplied from native sources.
In this reign, and in that of James II., wholesale for-
feitures increased the number of houses which belonged
to the king. Doune Castle was a frequent residence
of James II. It was provisioned for the entertainment
of the royal household in 1451-2 with forty-four
marts, and with swine, calves and kids, at a total cost
of ^36, 175. id. ; and in 1454 with bread, ale, capons,
and poultry. The prince was there from June to
September 1457. A chaplain, a watchman, a porter,
a park keeper, and a gardener, as well as a keeper of
the castle, were in receipt of fees ; and seeds of cab-
bages, scallions, and onions were supplied to the garden.
The king, when he stayed at this castle, hunted in the
forest of Glenfinlas. In 1459 a hunting lodge, which
consisted of a hall and two chambers, was built in the
forest. Doune was a dower-house of the queen, Mary
of Gueldres.
Methven Castle became once more a possession of
the crown on the attainder of the Earl of Athol. In
1444 or 1445 it would appear to have been seized by
a supporter of Crichton, for it sustained a siege of the
king. The king and queen were there in September
1450, probably for the purpose of hunting, for there
is record of the mending of the stables and of provision
for their horses. Like Doune, the castle formed part
of the queen's dower.
The barony of Strathbraan had become a royal
possession with the rest of the lands of the earldom of
Fife ; and Loch Fruchy, in Strathbraan, was another
hunting resort of James II. There, as in Glenfinlas,
a hunting lodge was made in 1459 : it included a hall,
28 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
a chamber, a kitchen, and offices. In 1460 it was
furnished with tables, seats, doors, and locks.
The thirteenth-century castle of Lochmaben in
Dumfriesshire had been an hereditary possession of
Robert the Bruce: it was his place of refuge in 1304.
He bestowed it on Randolph, Earl of Moray ; sub-
sequently it passed into the tenure of the Douglases,
and on the execution of Douglas in 1440, it accrued
to the crown. The king held his court at Lochmaben
before 1453, and again a few years later.
In 1457-8 James was at Rothesay Castle : there is
mention of a keeper, a constable, a porter, and two
watchmen, who held office in that house, as well as of
the priest of the chapel of St. Bridget, of which the
ruins can still be seen within the courtyard. At much
the same time the king visited another ancient posses-
sion of the Stewarts, Dunoon Castle.
He was sometimes in the north of Scotland. At
Inverness he caused extensive additions and repairs to
the castle. At Elgin he stayed at the manse of Duff-
house within the college of the cathedral, and a kitchen
was added to the house for his use. But a fire
occurred during his visit and all the royal plenishing
was burnt. The king's lodging in Aberdeen borough
was repaired in 1442-3. It may have been that house
of one of his custumars in which he stayed five years
later. At Ayr he was lodged in the house of Margaret
Mure.
The castle of Ravenscraig stands on a rocky pro-
montory on the coast of Fife between the towns of
Kirkcaldy and Dysart. On three sides it is surrounded
by the sea. The project of building it appears to have
been conceived by James II., who five months before
his death in 1460 acquired the lands of Dysart ; and
the work of construction was undertaken by his queen
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 29
in the very beginning of her widowhood. In 1461
fourteen great timbers called joists were carried from
the woods on the banks of the Allan to Stirling ; there
they were cut and planed, and thence they were sent
to Ravenscraig. Other accounts are of the transport
thither, by means of horses and of boats, of stone and
timber. Already in 1461 the building sufficed to
lodge the queen's steward and certain others of her
servants. No further payments for the work of
construction were made after the death of Mary of
Gueldres in 1463. From its situation it seems that
this castle was designed to protect the entrance to the
Firth of Forth ; but it had considerable living rooms.
The ruins, headed by a round tower, stand out into
the wild sea of the Firth. The castle was granted
by James III. to William St. Clair, fourth Earl of
Orkney, in exchange for his earldom and the castle
of Kirkwall.
The queen-mother in 1461 was hunting at Glen-
finlas.
In this year or the next the separation of her
household from that of the king took place. It was
settled by act of parliament that " the king suld ay
remane with the quene, but scho suld nocht intromit
with his profettis, but allenarlie with his person."
In 1461 the court visited Dumfries. After his
mother's death James was at Kirkcudbright in 1466-7 ;
in the next year at Peebles, and in the north at Aber-
deen, Banff, Fyvie, Elgin, and Inverness.
The castles of Doune and Methven in this reign
again formed part of the queen's jointure. Bute,
which included Rothesay Castle, and Dundonald were
among lands inalienably annexed to the crown in
1469, as well as Kilmarnock, a late possession of
the Boyds, which, however, was granted to the queen
30 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
for life. To Kilmarnock belonged the Dean Castle,
which with the other Boyd estates reverted to that
family in 1544.
In the summer which succeeded his marriage the
king, with the queen, again made a northern progress,
and spent about a month at Inverness.
The town of Leith was in 1475 t^le PreY °f so
severe a visitation of the plague that it was abandoned
by its inhabitants ; and the Bishop of Orkney sent
thither to the king's house forty-six marts which
were suffered to perish from neglect.
The south wall of Dunfermline Palace, with its
mullioned windows and the intervening buttresses,
must have been built in the latter half of the fifteenth
century. There is, however, no trace of the work in
the Exchequer Rolls, and it cannot be determined
whether it be that of James III. or James IV.
James IV. was, according to a chronicler, "gret-
umlie given to the bigging of palaceis quhilk wer
Halyrudhous and Kintyer, the houssis of Edinbrugh,
Striueling and Falkland." By Kintyre must be meant
Bruce's castle of Tarbert, which was restored by the
king in the course of an endeavour to bring order to
the remote western part of his dominions.
The enterprise was characteristic of his vigour as
a ruler, which led him to visit the most distant parts of
the realm. He built a stronghold on Loch Kilkerran,
and in the spring of 1498 he spent a few days both
there and at Tarbert. In 1499 or 1500 he was at
Rothesay and Tarbert.
The castle of Dingwall had reverted to the crown
with the earldom of Ross in 1476. It was held by
the king's brother as Duke of Ross ; and at the duke's
death it lapsed to the crown. Soon after his marriage
the king visited Dingwall Castle. In 1507 the sum
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 31
of £20 was expended on the construction there of a
great hall, and other payments were made for repairs.
This castle was important because it commanded the
roads to Ross, Caithness, and Sutherland, the way to
the extreme north.
The earldom of Moray was by his marriage to
Elizabeth Dunbar acquired by Archibald, brother to
the eighth and ninth Earls of Douglas, and with other
Douglas possessions was forfeited to the crown under
James II. The ancient seat of the earls was Darnaway
Castle, which stands in the midst of a forest on rising
ground near the river Findhorn. There is an old
couplet :
" Darnaway green is bonnie to be seen
In the midst of Morayland."
Of the early building all that remains is the hall,
probably begun by Archibald Douglas, of which the
fine oaken roof was made by James II. Payments for
it are entered in the accounts from 1456 to 1458 ; in
1456-7 carpenters received wages for planing in the
park of Darnaway three hundred boards.
There is no evidence that either James II. or
James III. visited this house. In 1501 James IV.
granted the castle and forest of Darnaway and certain
other lands to Janet Kennedy, lady of Bothwell and
daughter of John, Lord Kennedy, for the cordial love
he bore her, to hold for life, or while she remained
with James Stewart, son to her and the king, and
without a husband or other man. She came to the
castle from Stirling in 1501 ; but appears to have left
it before 1505. Margaret Stewart, who was at Darn-
away from 1501 to 1508, was probably the king's
daughter by Janet. She was visited at Darnaway by
her father ; and after her departure he was again at
the castle, in December 1511.
32 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
Alexander, Earl of Huntly, when in 1509 he
became hereditary keeper of Inverness Castle, incurred
for himself and his heirs an obligation to build a
hall, 100 feet long and 30 feet wide, as well as
a kitchen and a chapel, on the Castle Hill. On
several occasions King James was at Inverness.
He is heard of also at Elgin, Aberdeen, Dundee,
Dumbarton, Lanark, Scone, Coupar Angus, Kinclevin,
Dumfries, Canonbie and Lochmaben, Jedburgh and
Melrose, and Newhaven. Dunbar has a poem — " The
Wouing of the King quhen he was in Dunfermling " ;
and Perkin Warbeck was entertained at Methven and
at Perth. Methven and Doune Castles were under
James IV. again made dower-houses.
In this reign there is detailed information as to the
households of the king and queen. Compared with
those maintained by English nobles they were modest.
It has been computed that the members of the house-
hold of James IV. numbered 82, and that they
received in pay about ^478, 135. 4d. in a year;
and that contemporaneously 156 servants were sup-
ported by Henry Percy, fifth Earl of Northum-
berland, at an annual cost of ^1000. The latter,
however, included attendants of the earl's wife and
brother, and the incumbents of his chapel.
Among the servants of James IV. were a master
of the household, an usher, two keepers of the outer
chamber, a butler, wardroper, carver and seven mar-
shals, a keeper of the wine-cellar, two stewards, a
clerk of accounts, a butcher, a furrier, a tailor, a
keeper of spices, a barber, a gatekeeper, a lawyer,
an armourer, a chief cook, five kitchen boys and five
turnspits, a keeper of the silver plate, and a keeper
of the tin vessels. There were also heralds and
pursuivants and a small guard. The separate house-
*1
t^ V
2 ^
w .*
H ?s
H •<>
Cfl \J
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 33
hold of the queen included doorkeepers of the inner
and outer doors, a butler, a steward, a carver, a keeper
of the napery, two cooks and two grooms of the
kitchen, as well as women servants. James Dog, her
keeper of the wardrobe, is apostrophised in one of
Dunbar's poems : —
" The wardraipper of Wenus boure,
To giff a doublet he is als doure,
As it war off ane futt syd frog :
Madame, ze heff a dangerouss Dog."
Such were some of the train who rode with the
king and queen from place to place throughout the
length and breadth of Scotland. None of them re-
ceived a salary of more than £20 a year; yet some
whose posts would appear least dignified were persons
of gentle birth. There went with them great men
of the land, foreign guests, churchmen, play-actors
and musicians, writers, craftsmen, scientists, hangers-
on of all kinds, falconers and huntsmen, dogs and
horses with their keepers, and much unwieldy baggage.
Some idea of the habits of the company when they were
stationary may be gathered from a rhymed exhortation,
written in the middle of the sixteenth century, and
apparently addressed to ladies of the court : —
"At X. see that ye dyne ;
Ye schaip yow for to soup at VI.,
And in your bed ye pass at IX.
Se that ye lif into this lyne
Giff ye will weile esposit be :
Than sail the masteris of medicyne
Get litill gude."
James V. travelled much about Scotland, especially
in the Lowlands, but of all the lesser royal houses,
there is proof only of his residence at Dunfermline.
34 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
When he was at Leith he stayed in the inn of a
certain David Falconer. It is likely, therefore, that
the palace of James I. had been abandoned, and that
it was not the dwelling-place of Mary of Guise when
she lived at Leith in 1560.
Of the castles and palaces which had served the
Stewart kings as residences, the less important were
alienated from the crown, either actually, or by the
circumstance that they had hereditary keepers, who
came in practice to be their owners after they had
ceased to be visited by sovereigns.
The hereditary constabulary of Rothesay Castle
had been granted by James III. to the representative
of the Stewarts of Bute, the descendants of John
Stewart, natural son of Robert II. ; and the office
has continued with this family, that of the marquesses
of Bute. The castle was burnt by the Earl of Argyll
in 1685. The fosse around it was cleared, and the
wooden way of approach restored by the late Lord
Bute.
In 1472 James III. had conferred on Colin, Earl
of Argyll, the hereditary wardenship of Dunoon Castle,
with power to appoint constables, janitors of the
prisons, keepers, and watchmen. He must render
at the castle the yearly rent of one red rose. This
house came to be the residence of the earls and
marquesses of Argyll until the latter half of the
seventeenth century, when it was allowed to become
a ruin.
In a charter to the Earl of Argyll, made in 1525,
occurs a grant of the hereditary " custody of the Castle
of Tarbert when it shall be built." Probably, there-
fore, the works undertaken by James IV. had never
been completed ; and it would appear that no attempt
was made to continue them, but that the castle was
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 35
allowed to become a ruin. In charters received by
the earls in 1541, and subsequently until 1610, they
received the custody of the castle "when it shall
happen to be built." Thereafter references to Tarbert
Castle disappear from the records.
The other castle chiefly associated with the Bruce,
that of Cardross, is lost to history at an earlier
date. In 1477 a life-grant of its keepership was made
by James III., but there is no evidence that it was
ever visited by fifteenth-century kings. Probably it
was suffered in this period to fall into decay.
The custody of Doune Castle was given by
James V. in 1528, with the consent of the queen
mother whose house it was, to be held in tail by
"James Stewart, brother german of Andrew Lord
Avondale," the great-grandson of its builder, Duke
Murdoch. The grandson of this James became Lord
Doune in 1581, and obtained at the same time full
possession of the castle. He was the ancestor of the
present owner, the Earl of Moray, and it is with his
family that Doune Castle is chiefly associated. In the
ballad of the death of the " bonnie earl " there is the
stanza —
" Oh lang, lang will his lady
Look ower the Castle Dotm
Ere she see the Earl o' Moray
Come riding through the toun."
It was garrisoned in the Jacobite interest in 1745, and
was the prison of certain Hanoverian soldiers, among
them Home, the author of " Douglas." The castle
has long been abandoned as a residence, but the ruins
are well preserved.
It was in the same ownership as Darnaway Castle,
for that house became again an appanage of the
36 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
earldom of Moray. As such it had probably been
vested in David, the son of James II., on whom
the title was conferred, and who died in childhood.
In 1501 James IV. once more separated this dignity
from the crown in favour of James Stewart, his son
by Janet Kennedy who that year had taken up her
abode at Darnaway. She was probably succeeded by
her son in her tenure of the castle, and he died in
it as its holder in 1544. The house passed with the
title to later earls, and is owned by the present Lord
Moray. The modern part of the building was erected
in 1810.
The lands of Dundonald, with the woods, the mill,
and the fortalice, were demised at fee-farm in 1526,
for an annual rent of £30, to William son of Hugh
Wallace of Cragy. This grant was afterwards can-
celled in favour of another to Robert Boyd, late of
Kilmarnock, who held for a yearly rent of £22 ; but
he in 1545 had resigned in favour of John Wallace, to
whom in that year a grant in tail male of the property,
burdened with the rent of ^22, was made. In 1597
the rent due was ^32 ; and such was its amount when
in 1638 his right in the castle and surrounding land
was acquired from James Wallace by Sir William
Cochrane of Cowdon. Sir William was created Lord
Cochrane of Dundonald in 1647, and Earl of Dun-
donald after the Restoration. The bearer of these
titles retains the ruined castle, the hill on which it
stands, and five roods of adjoining land.
In 1528 the queen mother, Margaret Tudor,
obtained from James V. a grant of the barony of
Methven in favour of her third husband, Henry
Stewart ; and he acquired with the title the lordship
and castle of Methven. Queen Margaret died at the
castle in 1540. Henry, third Lord Methven and
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 37
grandson to the first lord, left no heirs ; and his
estates were conferred in 1584 on Ludovic, Duke
of Lennox. In 1664 Charles, the last duke, sold
the castle to Patrick Smythe of Braco, the ancestor
of the present owner. The existing house dates
from the seventeenth century.
In 1584 Andrew Keith, an illegitimate son of
Robert Keith, abbot of Deer, and a grandson of
William, Lord Keith, was created Baron Dingwall ;
and at the same time he obtained a grant of the castle
of Dingwall with its houses and prisons, appar-
ently in full possession. In 1587, after the general
revocation of grants made during the minority of
James VI., not a complete ownership but the here-
ditary custody and constabulary of the castle were
conferred on Lord Dingwall ; and they were ratified
to him and his assigns in 1591. Two years later
he was suffered to grant the right of succession to
Sir William Keith of Delny and his heirs male ; but
both Andrew and William appear to have died without
heirs male before 1606. The barony, together with
the constabulary and keepership of the castle, were sold
by the crown to James, Lord Balmerinoch, in 1608 ;
and transferred by him to Sir Richard Preston of
Halltree. The latter was succeeded in 1628 by his
daughter Elizabeth, Baroness Dingwall, who married
James Butler, Lord Thurles, the eventual holder of
the titles of Earl of Ossory and Ormond and Duke
of Ormond. Elizabeth died in 1684 and left as heir
a grandson, James, Lord Butler of Moore Park, who
became Duke of Ormond on the death of his grand-
father in 1688. He was attainted after the insurrec-
tion of 1715, and his honours and offices were forfeited
to the crown.
Subsequently Dingwall Castle was acquired by
38 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
William Munro of Ardullie. His technical position
was presumably that of constable and keeper. The
castle was by the middle of the eighteenth century
a complete ruin, of which the stones were used by
the townspeople : it is said that they served to build
the municipal buildings. Through a daughter of
William Munro the rights which he had held in the
castle passed, towards the end of the century, to her
son, the Rev. Colin Mackenzie, minister of Fodderty.
He assigned the ruins and lands, valued at ^300, in
trust, to endow a project, which has never been
realised, for the employment of the working people
of Dingwall.
Early in the nineteenth century Captain Donald
Maclennan, previously commander of an armed mer-
chantman in the Napoleonic wars, acquired part of
the site and built the existing castellated mansion.
Lochmaben Castle, while in the sixteenth century
it ceased to be a dwelling-place of kings, was still
a royal garrison. It was dismantled by Lord Scrope in
1543. In 1588 it was seized by Lord Maxwell, and
held against a siege conducted by James VI. in person ;
but after a bombardment which lasted two days, and
in which artillery borrowed from the English was
utilised, the garrison capitulated. In the seventeenth
century, when border fortresses had lost tfieir use, the
castle was suffered to become a ruin. The hereditary
keeper is Mr. Hope Johnstone.
Queen Mary, when she was not in one of the great
palaces of her kingdom, lived in the houses of subjects.
A castle greatly associated with her is that of Craig-
millar, two miles distant from Edinburgh, to which
she went often to find purer air and greater quiet and
freedom than were to be had at Holyrood. This
castle, however, was never a crown possession ; it was
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 39
held from the fourteenth century until the seventeenth
by that family of Preston who at one time were con-
stables of Dingwall. In 1 66 1 it was acquired by Sir John
Gilmour, whose descendant is the present owner.
Craigmillar has kingly associations earlier than
Mary's reign. When in 1479 James III. caused the
arrest of his brothers, the elder, Albany, was warded
in Edinburgh Castle ; and Mar, the younger, at Craig-
millar. There Mar was attacked by sickness, and he was
removed to the Canongate in order that he might have
the care of the king's physician. He died ; and there
were rumours, to which it is unnecessary to attach
credit, that he had been poisoned at Craigmillar Castle.
In 1517, when Edinburgh was visited by the plague,
the little king, James V., was removed from danger
of infection to Craigmillar; and he was there again
on later occasions. The English invaders sacked and
burnt the castle in 1544.
The memory of Mary is, however, that which has
stayed most persistently in this house. The hamlet
below the castle walls is said to have acquired its name,
Little France, from her French retinue who were
quartered in it. A plane tree at Craigmillar, the
greatest in the Lothians, is called " Queen Mary's
tree " because she is believed to have planted it.
Her bedcloset is still shown in the ruins of the
castle.
At a critical moment in her history Mary came to
Craigmillar. Probably on the 24th of November
1566, after a progress through the southern parts of
her dominions, she arrived at the castle ; and she
remained there through the early part of December.
It was the end of the year in which Riccio had been
murdered. "The Queen," wrote the French am-
bassador to the Archbishop of Glasgow, " . . . is in
40 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
the hands of the physicians, and I do assure you is
not at all well, and do believe the principal part of
her disease to consist in grief and sorrow. Nor does
it seem possible to make her forget the same. Still
she repeats these words, c I could wish to be dead/ '
Among the many indictments made against Mary
is one that on this occasion she was party to a plot
laid at the castle for the murder of her husband, that
she approved a bond for that purpose subscribed by
Huntly, Argyll, Lethington, and Sir James Balfour.
The statement rests only on confessions made sub-
seqt&ntly to Darnley's death. Another tale is that
Murray, Lethington, Argyll, Huntly, and Bothwell
suggested to Mary at Craigmiilar that she should
consent to a divorce which should not prejudice her
son's legitimacy. Mary is reported not to have refused
definitely, to have said, " I will that ye do nothing
whereby any spot may be laid to my honour and
conscience, and therefore I pray you rather let the
matter be as it is, abiding till God of His goodness
put remedy thereto ; lest ye, believing to do me
service, may possibly turn to my hurt and dis-
pleasure ; " to which Lethington replied, " Let us
guide the matter amongst us, and your Grace shall
see nothing but good, and approved by parliament."
CYet another allegation which connects this house
ith the tragedy of Darnley is that it was intended
at first that his death should take place there instead
of at Kirk o' Field.
The ruins of the castle stand on a hill ; and in
contrast to the encroaching city they have a grave
and solitary effect. There still are near them a few
ancient trees. The castle has consisted of a fourteenth-
century keep, and of additional buildings against the
wall of enceinte, of which the most important were
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 41
probably erected after the disaster of 1544. Thus in
Mary's time the house must have been well adapted to
the needs of the period. It was, moreover, planned
on a great scale and contained many rooms.
Except the palaces of which separate accounts are
given, Dunfermline is that which retained longest its
ancient character. It was a frequent residence of
James VI. In May 1590, the year of his marriage,
^400 was paid " by his Majesty's precept for reparation
of the house at Dunfermline befoir the Queenis
Majesties passing thereto " ; and on the iyth of July
"the Queene went over to Dunfermline, convoyed
with a number of noble men and weomen." Privy
councils were held at this palace in August and
September 1596 ; and on the I9th of August in that
year it was the birthplace of the Princess Elizabeth,
afterwards Queen of Bohemia and ancestress of the
Hanoverian kings. In 1600, on the I9th of Novem-
ber, the king's second son, Charles, who was to be
Charles I., was born at Dunfermline; and in 1602,
" upon Moonday the 1 8th of Januar the Queene was
delivered of her thrid sonne in Dunfermline." He
was named Robert, but died within a year. In March,
when Edinburgh was suffering from a visitation of the
plague, the council, " cairfull that all ordinar and
lauchfull meanis be usit quhilkis, at Godis plesour,
may preserve the toun of Dunfermling, being the ordi-
narie place of the residence of the Quene, his Hienes
derrest spous, and of their Majesties bairnis, fra the
said infection," took means to isolate the place.
Under pain of death the boatmen at Queensferry
were forbidden to carry travellers from the south to
the north coast of the Firth, except the king's coun-
cillors and such servants of the royal household as
could prove that they were " voyd and cleare of all
42 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
suspicioun of the said plague." The provost and
bailies of the borough were ordered, while the epi-
demic continued, to suffer no families to resettle
within the town, nor to receive into it any persons
who came from places suspected of infection. From
1599 to 1603 councils were again frequently held at
Dunfermline. In the latter year Robert Carey went
to the palace to see Prince Charles and " found him a
very weak child."
The " ordinarie place of the residence " of Anne
of Denmark was not the older palace but a building
known as " the Queen's House," which communicated
with it on the north-east by a gallery, and which
would appear to have been erected for her use. It
stood between the palace and the abbey church ; and
in the engraving in Sibbald's Theatrum Scotiae its gables
can be seen behind the palace roof.
At Dunfermline, as at those places where were
more important houses of the crown, orders were
issued on several occasions between 1603 anc^ 1^I7 f°r
the preservation of game in the vicinity of the palace,
in view of expected visits of the king. That repairs
were undertaken in preparation for the long deferred
royal progress through Scotland, which at last took
place in 1617, is proved by an order to certain two
masons of Culross either to go to Holyrood, there
to render service, or within twenty-four hours " to
address themselves with their worklooms to his
Majesty's work at Dunfermline." There is a tradition
that James VI. was at the palace in 1617, but it is
unsupported by the records.
Subsequently at intervals, when James or Charles I.
had announced intended visits, proclamations for the
preservation of game in the neighbourhood of Dun-
fermline were made as before from the market-cross
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 43
of the borough. In 1624 Sir Henry Wardlaw and
the master of works received warrant " to visite the
defectis in the place of Dunfermlyne, and to cause
mend the same " ; and this house was among those on
which in 1629 a commission was ordered to report.
Charles I., before he came to Scotland in 1633,
gave warning that Dunfermline was one of the towns
which he would honour with his presence ; and as
in Edinburgh and other places, proclamations from
the market-cross ordered the reservation of lodgings
for his train. As elsewhere, the borough magistrates
were instructed to supply, during his visit, assistants
to his pastrycooks and bakers ; and the inhabitants
of neighbouring parishes were directed to convey his
baggage. His visit was to have been made on the
road from Stirling to Falkland ; and Lord Rothes,
sheriff of Fife, and Lord Lindsay, bailie of the
regality, collected the gentry of Fife and their friends,
to the number of two thousand horsemen, and rode
to receive him. It is related, however, that the king
avoided the company by taking a byroad, and never
fulfilled his promise of going to Dunfermline.
After Charles II. had made his strange alliance
with the Covenanters, on the 2nd of August 1650,
he withdrew from the Scottish army then engaged in
a task not congenial to him, that of " purging " their
ranks, and went to Dunfermline Palace. Here he
was desired to sign a declaration that he was " deeply
humbled and afflicted in spirit before God, because of
his father's opposition to the work of God, and to the
Solemn League and Covenant, and for the idolatry
of his mother." He declined such baseness; and
the ministers turned against him all their force of
invective. On the 9th, Lothian, Waristoun, James
Guthrie, and others, sent by the committee of the
44 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
army and kirk, arrived to persuade him. He was
out hunting ; and when he returned he " denied
absolutely to declare anything that might rub upon
his father." But four days later Argyll, Lothian,
Lome, and others prevailed upon him to subscribe the
document, " only he entreated them to be as sparing
of his father's name and memory as necessarily could
be." In April and in June of the following year
Charles was again at Dunfermline.
Cromwell was in the town when in the summer of
1651 he overran Fife, after his victory at Inverkeith-
ing ; but there is nothing to show whether he visited
the palace.
It does not appear that the inspections of the build-
ing made in 1624 and 1629 had resulted in the repair
of defects ; and much deterioration had followed on
neglect. In the plates published in the end of the
seventeenth century, in Sir Robert Sibbald's Theat-
rum Scotiae, the palace has still a habitable appear-
ance; but in 1708, the north gable wall, part of the
front wall, and most of the roof fell to the ground.
Therefore when in 1715 a band of Highlanders in
arms for James Edward entered the town, they took
shelter not in the ruined palace but in the adjacent
Queen's House.
Dunfermline was visited by Daniel Defoe, who
found there " the full perfection of decay — its decayed
monastery, palace, and town, the natural consequence
of the decay of the palace." In the middle of the
eighteenth century the Queen's House was used as a
place in which to hold cock-fights; and in 1797 it
had become so ruinous that it was demolished. There
has been no attempt to restore the palace. Mr.
Hunt of Pittencrieff in 1812 repaired the ruins, and
cleared away an accumulation of rubbish. He be-
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 45
lieved that the considerable expense he thus incurred
gave him a right of ownership, and protracted litiga-
tion ensued. In 1871 his claim was defeated in the
House of Lords ; and the crown formally took pos-
session of the ruined palace. It commands the beau-
tiful and romantic glen of Pittencrieff, in which the
Tower burn runs between wooded banks.
In modern times, the only house in Scotland, other
than Balmoral, which can be said to have been raised
to the dignity of a royal palace is Abergeldie Castle
on Deeside. It stands on the site of an ancient keep
of the Gordons ; it is still owned by the representa-
tive of that family, Mr. Reginald Gordon; but in
1848 a lease of it was acquired by the Prince Con-
sort, and has been followed by subsequent leases ;
and the house has become the Highland residence of
the Prince of Wales. Between 1850 and 1861 the
Duchess of Kent spent in it several autumns ; and
in 1879, after the death of the Prince Imperial, the
Empress Eugenie passed the month of October at
Abergeldie.
The most interesting and ancient part of the castle
is the high and rectangular tower, with a crow-stepped
gable roof, which has a somewhat elaborate angle
turret. It forms the nucleus of the whole structure,
and is a " good and picturesque example of a sixteenth-
century manor-house in Aberdeenshire." Considerable
alterations and additions of a later date have been
made. The castle stands on the south bank of the
Dee, and from the north side it was formerly reached
by a " rope and cradle " bridge, a cradle or basket
which carried a passenger and which ran along a rope
thrown across the river. This contrivance has been
replaced by an iron suspension bridge.
Behind Abergeldie rises Craig-na-Ban ; and to the
46 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
north of it beyond the river is Geallaig. Its lands
are beautifully planted, especially with birches. These
are the trees the glory of which Burns is accused of
having transferred to Aberfeldy, for at that place it is
certain that there were in 1803 no more birches than
there are at present.
" The braes ascend like lofty wa's,
The foaming stream deep roaring fa's,
O'erhung wi' fragrant spreading shaws,
The birks of Aberfeldy.
The hoary cliffs are crowned wi' flowers,
White o'er the linn the burnie pours,
And, rising, meets wi' misty showers
The birks of Aberfeldy."
(J)aface
IT is impossible to assign to any date the founda-
tion of Edinburgh Castle. Legends concerning
it meet its history ; and there is a period at
which the two are so entangled that they cannot
be distinguished. The castle is prior to the city : it
must have stood as now on its grey beetling rock when
the Lothians around it were a wild waste country. It
was known, when Edinburgh was not, as the Maidens'
Castle ; and the name has caused a tradition that it
was the place of safety to which Scottish princesses
were sent when their fathers were engaged in war.
This story must be abandoned. Maidens' Castle is
probably a corruption of an earlier Celtic name, per-
haps Maidun or Maghdun, "the fort of the plain,"
and the false etymology may have arisen with the
chroniclers who Latinised it as Castrum Puellarum.
The earliest references to the castle discover it in
the possession of the English. Boece relates that after
Kenneth MacAlpin had conquered the Picts their
queen fled to the English, and that she went first
" To ane castell biggit with stane and lime,
The Madyn Castell callit wes that time."
It is unlikely, however, that a Scottish castle of this
period was thus constructed. A well-authenticated
47
4 8 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
fact is that King Indulf, who reigned from 954 to 962,
occupied Dunedin or Edinburgh ; and henceforth the
castle was generally held by the Scots.
It acquired importance as the centre of government
shifted to the lands south of the Forth, and it became
not a border but a metropolitan fortress. Malcolm
Canmore probably inhabited it frequently ; and the
chapel of St. Margaret was, according to tradition
supported by structural evidence, founded by his
queen Margaret. At the time of the death of
Malcolm and of Edward his eldest son, in 1093,
Margaret lay at the castle, sick unto death. Accord-
ing to the legend, she had supernatural knowledge of
the disaster which had overtaken her husband before
she had news of it ; at all events her son Edgar, on
the fourth day after his father had been slain, brought
her the tidings. Almost immediately she received
the extreme unction, and on the same day she died.
The castle was besieged by Donald Bain before her
death was generally known ; but Ethelred and others of
her sons, under cover of a mist, perhaps the familiar
white haar of Edinburgh, carried her body secretly
through a western postern and down the rock, and
thence to Dumfermline.
Under Margaret's son, the pious Edgar, Edinburgh
Castle became more important as a residence of kings.
It was the place of Edgar's death in 1107. David I.,
between 1143 and 1147, granted to the monks of
Holyrood the church of the castle, presumably St.
Margaret's chapel ; as well as the land that lay under
the castle between a spring near the corner of his
garden beside the road to St. Cuthbert's church, and
a craig under the castle towards the east ; and more-
over, hides of rams, ewes, and lambs in- his flocls of the
castle which should die. This grant was confirmed by
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 49
William the Lion. Between 1139 and 1150 King
David held two assemblies of his barons at the
Maidens' Castle, and his son Henry was present at
least at the earlier of them. In 1 174 William the Lion,
when a prisoner at Falaise in Normandy, delivered
this and other fortresses to the English king, as a
pledge for the performance of the treaty on which
his release was conditional. The English keeper was
Alan Fitz Rubald or Alan of Richmond, who re-
ceived from his government, in 1175, £26, 135. 4d.
for purposes of fortification ; and who was appar-
ently remunerated at the rate of one hundred marks a
year. In 1177 Vivian the cardinal, on his return from
Ireland, convoked a council of Scottish prelates to the
Maidens7 Castle; and in 1180 Alexander, the papal
nuncio, summoned thither bishops, abbots, and other
religious men, and caused the consecration of John to
the see of St. Andrews by Matthew, Bishop of Aber-
deen. The castle returned to the possession of King
William between 1186 and 1189. Alexander II. was
there in 1231 and in 1241. It was in 1235 the
prison of Thomas the Bastard of Galloway, who when
destitute of counsel and help had been obliged to seek
the king's peace.
Alexander III., a ten-year-old king, brought his
queen Margaret, the daughter of Henry III., from
York to Edinburgh Castle in 1251. In 1254 Henry
requested him to call to the castle a council of prelates
and magnates in order to give audience to certain
envoys from Gascony.
The little queen Margaret did not like her
northern home, and the circumstance became a pretext
for English interference in the politics of Scotland.
In 1255 tne queen of England sent to visit her
daughter and son-in-law a physician named Reginald
D
52 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
whose name of Lewyn suggests that he was Welsh,
and who consumed the money provided for his
journey at a tavern. Then, because he wished to
recoup himself by a betrayal, he caused the Scots
to draw him over the castle wall by a rope. The
constable, however, refused to listen to his informa-
tion ; and, mounted on the wall, shouted to those
below to make known to their king the news of
the traitor's arrival. Eventually Lewyn was lowered
on his rope to the besiegers, to be judged, drawn, and
hanged. King Edward is said, when he heard of the
constable's action, to have withdrawn the fire of his
artillery from the besieged ; and the chronicler thus
accounts for the length of time taken to reduce the
castle. It fell after a fortnight's siege, when Edward
had already moved northwards. The jewels and
relics found in it were sent to England in six coffers,
and deposited in the wardrobe at Westminster. They
included a golden sceptre which had belonged to John
Balliol, and a golden crown, with an apple of silver
gilt and a rose of gold, once of the Scottish kings.
Subsequently the castle was occupied by an English
garrison ; it was the only fortress which the Scots did
not recover in 1298. In March 1314 Randolph, Earl
of Moray, contrived with a small company to scale
the rock on its northern side, and then to climb over
the wall by means of ladders, while the defenders were
engaged by a strong attack on the south gate. The
castle was thereafter levelled by King Robert, in
accordance with his policy.
Robert seems to have undertaken the repair of
St. Margaret's chapel; for in 1329 £20 had been
spent on its fabric. In 1328 and afterwards, pro-
bably till 1334, the sheriff of Edinburgh was re-
sponsible for the wardenship of the castle. In the
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 53
latter year it was surrendered by Edward Balliol, with
all Scotland south of the Forth, to Edward III. A
body of foreign auxiliaries under the Duke of Namur
were, in 1335, intercepted on their way to join the
English army by the Earls of March and Mar and
William Douglas, knight of Liddesdale, on Borough-
muir, and driven through the narrow lanes of Edin-
burgh to the ruins of the dismantled fortress, where they
surrendered. Thereafter it is evident that the castle
was rebuilt by the English king. In the late autumn
of 1337, when Edward had returned to England, the
Scots attempted its recovery ; but the siege was raised
by an army of Westmoreland and Cumberland under
the Bishop of Carlisle and Ralph de Dacre, lord of
Gillesland, and by the forces of Balliol.
Edinburgh Castle was captured at last by a
strategy of the knight of Liddesdale. He associated
himself with Walter Curry, the owner of a ship at
Dundee, and with William Bullok, William Fraser,
and Joachim of Kynbuk. Walter's ship was manned
with two hundred men and brought to Inchkeith,
and Walter went to the castle with a gift of wine
and biscuits for the captain. He represented that
he was a merchant of Elie who dealt in corn, wine,
and strong ale, and he obtained leave to return on the
morrow in order to sell his wares. On the next
morning Douglas and his company placed themselves
in ambush near the gate, and Walter with twelve
others went up to the castle. The men wore armour
beneath rude frocks ; and they, as well as two horses
which they brought with them, were laden with creels
and vessels that held the supposed merchandise. The
porter followed his instructions and opened the great
gate to the traders, whereupon one of them rushed
at him and overpowered him ; he and his assistants
54 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
were slain, and the portcullis and the turnpike were
stopped by the creels and jugs and by staffs from
being closed. Then Walter blew a horn and the
defenders rushed to the gate, to find " stout porters,"
who engaged them in fight. The noise brought
Douglas and his men from their hiding-place ; and
in a bitter conflict the English were killed, wounded,
trampled under foot, strangled, flung over the castle
walls, and taken prisoners. Some escaped to carry
the news into the town. Douglas established his
brother, William the Elder of Douglas, as warden.
For their part in the enterprise j£ioo was, in 1342,
awarded to Walter Curry and William Fairlie.
After this date the castle was in the keeping of
great men. Sir David Lindsay, " that was true, of
steadfast fay . . . na ryot, no na strife made he,"
was warden in 1348, and entertained his nephew,
William of Douglas, nephew also to the Good Lord
James and son to Sir Archibald, who came to " ease
him with solace and play." The wardenship was
distinct from the office of constable.
David II. in the latter part of his reign repaired
the castle, and it became one of the chief strongholds
of the country, and was again, as it does not seem to
have been since the beginning of the wars, a principal
residence of kings. The spring within it had been
lost to knowledge during the demolition. In 1361
and 1362 payment was made for the construction of a
well at the existing spring beside the base of the rock
on its north side. Payments for the making of the
tower of the well give the origin of the fabric, of
which the ruins are still known as Wellhouse Tower,
and which must have been connected with the well by
a passage. In 1364 the constable received 585. for
erecting a paling for a duel, and this probably indicates
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 55
that the lists at the foot of the castle rock were already
in existence. Payment for a sink and a great vat in
the castle was made in 1368, and from that year until
1375 there are frequent entries in the Exchequer
Rolls with regard to the construction of a " new
tower " ; that lofty and massive building near the
Half Moon battery, which was known as Davy's
Tower, and destroyed in the siege of 1573. King
David in 1368 sent the chamberlain and certain others
to see what the castle lacked in munition and pro-
visions, and considerable sums were expended on
fortifying and victualling it.
Before 1366 a chapel of St. Mary had been built
in the castle. Its priest received ^10 out of the
yearly farm of Edinburgh until 1390, when the new
chapel appears to have superseded that of St. Margaret.
At that date Robert II. granted for the weal of the
souls of himself, Euphemia his queen, the kings
Robert and David Bruce, and all kings his ancestors
and successors, ^8 yearly out of the great custom
of Edinburgh to the priest who celebrated perpetually
in St. Margaret's chapel. This endowment was con-
firmed in the same year by Robert III., and due pay-
ment accordingly was made to the priest who had
hitherto ministered in the chapel of St. Margaret, and
who should for the future serve that of St. Mary.
Henceforth payments, when allotted specifically, were
to the chaplain of St. Mary until 1405 and in 1475,
except in 1393, 1395, and 1396. At the latter dates
and after 1405, except in 1475, they were made to
the priest of St. Margaret's chapel. It is probable
that one priest served two chapels. That of St. Mary
was afterwards known as the garrison church.
The building works of King David were continued
by Robert II. In 1379 iron had been supplied for the
56 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
gate of the castle, and certain masons were paid for
the completion of kennels ; in 1380 an iron door and a
wall next to it had been erected ; in 1381 divers work-
men had, after much labour, discovered the ancient
and lost well in the castle, and had cleaned and
repaired it ; in 1382 a new house had been built after
the manner of a vault, and next the great tower, for a
kitchen and other offices. The gate and bridge were
repaired, and pavement was laid down near them.
Probably for the sake of security, some private in-
dividuals and others had dwellings within the castle.
Thus in 1385 Robert II. granted to the abbot of
Holyrood that he might choose any piece of land,
eighty feet square, within the castle and outside the
king's manor, and build on it a sufficient house and
necessary offices, in which he and the canons might
reside ; and he gave also the right of freely enter-
ing and leaving the castle. The abbot must render
to the king a silver penny every Whitsunday. In
1385 John, Earl of Carrick, afterwards Robert III.,
bestowed the like privilege of ingress and egress on
such burgesses of Edinburgh as had or should have
dwellings in the castle.
Robert III. appears to have been often at Edin-
burgh Castle. In 1400 it was defended by the Duke
of Rothesay when Henry IV. besieged it in person.
The English army was well provisioned, even with
such luxuries as lampreys and porpoises, but after three
days the siege was raised.
James I. was at the castle in April 1434, and
caused there the arrest of Walter Stewart, eldest son
of Murdoch, Duke of Albany, and late regent. This
king was a builder of the castle. In this year money
was disbursed for walls, and timber for the fabric and
for the great chamber thereof. This chamber was the
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 57
parliament hall on the south side of the palace yard.
Expenses for repairs and for the making of a new
kitchen and staircase had been incurred while James
was a prisoner in England. In 1434 there is mention
of the king's wardrobe in the castle, and in the next
year a kitchen garden within the precincts was
completed.
The building of the hall was probably synchronous
with that of the palace on the east side of the court-
yard, of the private apartments of kings, for these
also date from the fifteenth century. It would seem
that before they abandoned Edinburgh Castle for
Holyrood the kings attempted to adapt it to the
needs of the time. The work of James I. was com-
pleted by his son, who roofed the great hall with lead,
and provided linen cloths for its windows. Robert
Lang, chaplain, had charge in 1459 of the king's
chambers in the castle and all property left in them.
After the death of James I. the castle figured in
the incidents of the strange competition between the
warden, William Crichton, and Alexander Living-
stone, for the custody of the person of the young
king. He came thither with his mother for safety
immediately after his father's murder at Perth in
1437. In 1438 a feather mattress and pillow were
delivered at the castle for his use ; and before March
1439 he had passed into the keeping of Livingstone
at Stirling. A somewhat legendary account of this
transference is that the queen mother, when by great
pains she had allayed all Crichton's suspicions, obtained
from him leave to take out of the castle two boxes
full of her clothes and ornaments, on the pretext that
she wished to make a pilgrimage to the White Kirk.
She packed her belongings in one box and placed her
son in the other ; and thus she conveyed him to Leith,
58 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
where a ship was in readiness to sail to Stirling. It
is said that Livingstone subsequently besieged Edin-
burgh Castle, that it was surrendered to him, and
then solemnly restored to Crichton. Soon afterwards
Crichton rode out of Edinburgh under cover of
night, kidnapped the king at Stirling, and brought
him back to the castle.
The tragedy known as the " Black Dinner " was
enacted in 1440. Its hero was William, Earl of
Douglas, a proud boy of sixteen, who was pronounced
by the lords of parliament to be a danger to the realm.
He was invited with " colouris and paintit words " to
come to Edinburgh for the service of the commonweal ;
and he rode accordingly with a considerable train,
among whom were his mentor, the aged Malcolm
Fleming of Cumbernauld, and his young brother
David, whom " he never sufferit to pasc ane fute
braid from himself." They were met by Crichton,
who made them halt at his house and gave them a
flattering reception. It is said, however, that the
frequent passage of messengers between Crichton and
Livingstone, as well probably as a knowledge of the
condition of parties, made many in the earl's train
uneasy; and these besought him not to enter Edin-
burgh Castle, or at least to send home his brother.
But he would give no ear to their warnings ; and
although, as rumours spread throughout the com-
pany, David Douglas was affected and would also
have persuaded his brother to turn back, the earl
answered only with sharp reproofs. So his followers,
with " sad, dreary, and quiet countenances," continued
on their way in silence. When the brothers arrived at
the castle they were received with great show of joy
and respect ; and after many of their friends had left
Edinburgh they were entertained at a banquet, osten-
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 59
sibly a consummation of the festivities in their honour.
As the meal was nearly over a bull's head on a dish
was brought into the room and set before the earl, and
the Douglas knew this sign of condemnation to death.
He and his brother leapt to their feet and looked
wildly for means of escape. But a company of armed
men, who had been in hiding, closed around them ;
they and Sir Malcolm Fleming and other gentlemen,
" their familiars and assisters," were bound and dragged
forth to the castle hill. The chronicler tells that the
little king was fond of his bold cousin the earl, and
prayed Crichton for God's sake to set free the brothers
and to save their lives, but he was roughly silenced.
After a hasty mock trial the Douglases were be-
headed, and Fleming met a like fate, probably a few
days later.
" Edinburgh Castle, toune and toure,
God grant thou sink for sinne !
And that even for the black dinoir
Erl Douglas gat therein."
Five years later James, with another Douglas,
William the eighth earl, besieged Crichton in the
castle, and obtained a surrender after nine weeks. A
chronicler relates that the fortress was afterwards
reformed. During the remainder of his reign the
king was frequently at the castle. We hear of endive
brought thither for his chamber, the brewing of his
beer, his wardrobe, his stable beneath the rock. In
1455 ^ was enacted in parliament that a bale should
be burnt at the castle to warn all Lothian of the
approach of any enemy.
James III. was in July 1466, when he was fourteen
years old, captured at Linlithgow by a faction headed
by Sir Alexander Boyd, Robert, Lord Fleming, a
son of Malcolm who was executed in 1440, and
60 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
Gilbert, Lord Kennedy ; and was brought a prisoner
to Edinburgh Castle. In the following October a
parliament met there ; and on the fifth day of its
session Boyd, in the presence of the \estates, knelt
before the king, and asked him if he had been removed
from Linlithgow against his will. James replied that
all had been done with his consent ; and Boyd was
made guardian of the king and his two brothers, and
keeper of the royal fortresses. In November 1469,
when a reversal of parties had occurred, Lord Boyd
and his brother Alexander were deprived, and sentenced
to death for their seizure of the king.
The custody of the castle, with power to delegate
attendant duties and an annual pension, was granted by
James in 1478, for five years, to the queen Margaret.
In 1479 tne king imprisoned his two brothers,
Alexander, Duke of Albany, and John, Earl of fylar,
the former in Edinburgh Castle. The friends of the
ambitious Albany procured that a French ship should
appear in the road of Leith near to Newhaven. She
claimed to be a trader carrying wine, and a messenger
was despatched to the castle to ask if the duke desired
to buy. He, with leave of the captain of the castle,
sent his familiar servant to the Frenchmen, with two
bosses in which to carry back four gallons of their
" best and starkest." The man returned with his bosses
filled with malvasic ; and moreover there was in one of
them a bundle of cords, and in the other a roll of wax
on which was secret writing. Further he brought
tidings to his master by word of mouth.
That night Albany bade the captain to supper, with
the promise of a drink of good wine, which the other
" gladly desyrit " ; but the duke told his "chamber
child " to drink nothing and to be on the alert. After
supper the captain went on his rounds : first to the
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 61
chamber of the king, who was staying in the castle ;
then to the gates, which he caused to be closed ; and
then to set the watch. He returned to drink ; and,
at an hour when all were in bed, he and the duke
played for the wine. " The fire was hot, and the wine
was stark, and the captain and his men became merrie."
Albany saw his opportunity ; he made a sign to his
chamber boy, leapt from the table, and slew the captain
with a whinger. The boy also was " right busy";
and between them they killed four men and put their
bodies in the fire. Then they went to the wall, to a
place where they were out of sight of the watches ;
and the duke let his boy down on the rope. It was
too short ; the boy fell and broke a bone and cried out
a warning to his master, who lengthened the rope
with a sheet before he too made the descent. He then
carried his servant on his back to a place where he
might be hidden ; and at last made good his escape to
the ship.
Next morning the watches noticed a rope hanging
over the wall, and ran to report to the captain ; but
they did not find him in his room. They went to the
duke's chamber, and the door stood open ; one dead
man lay athwart it and three others were burning in
the fire. The watches told the king the " very dolo-
rous and fearful " tidings ; and he would give them
no credence until he himself had been in Albany's
room. Thereafter he ordered the gates of the castle
to be shut, and the whole place to be searched before
the news had passed to the town ; and he sent out
horsemen to scour all parts of the country for the
duke. But a man came presently from Leith and
told that a boat had put out from the French ship and
taken in certain men ; and that afterwards the ship
had sailed out of the Forth.
62 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
At nine o'clock the lords came to the king at the
castle ; and when they heard of Albany's escape some
were fearful, and others "well content." "The king
was very commovit at the slaughter of the captain of
the castle, but more feirit at the departure of the duke."
Albany went first to Dunbar, which he ordered to
be held in his name, and then to France. Dunbar was
captured for the king after a siege of several months ;
and James thereafter went to Edinburgh Castle, where
he remained for some time in enjoyment of much
peace of mind.
After the murder of his favourites at Lauder, in
1482, he was convoyed to Edinburgh by his lords, and
again imprisoned in the castle. The chronicler states
that all outward respect was paid to him as a prince.
In his desire for freedom he first made overtures to the
Earl of Douglas, who shared his prison, and offered to
restore him to favour and to his possessions, but the earl
answered only with "high and presumptuous words."
Eventually the king's release was procured by Albany,
with the support of the English. James in his grati-
tude made grants to his brother, to the town of Edin-
burgh, and to John Dundas, his familiar servant, who
all had been instrumental in his delivery. In 1488,
shortly before the battle of Sauchie Burn, the king was
for the last time at Edinburgh Castle. He provisioned
it, and deposited in it all his treasure of gold and silver.
It was surrendered to James IV. on his accession.
In the reign of James IV. Edinburgh Castle ceased
to be a royal residence ; it was thenceforth, with rare
exceptions, only a fortress, a prison, and a barracks.
This king, however, " usit mikil jousting," and the
lists were near the royal stables, on the flat ground at
the base of the south side of the castle rock. The
history of a combat fought there reads like a passage
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 63
from the Mort d^ Arthur. A knight, said variously
to be Dutch and French, and called Sir John Clokbuis
or Corpans, desired to joust, and none was so ready
and apt to meet him as Sir Patrick Hamilton, brother
germain to the Earl of Arran, and nephew to the
king. He was a young man and less practised than
the stranger, but he lacked " no hardiment, strength,
nor curage." The two were mounted on great horses,
and at the sound of a trumpet they rushed rudely
together, so that each man broke his spear. New
spears were brought, but Sir Patrick's horse reared,
and refused again to encounter the other, and the duel
was finished on foot. Either knight struck " mali-
ciously " at his adversary, and they fought for long
with uncertain issue, until at last Sir Patrick "ruschit
manfullie upon the Dutchman and strak him upon
his knees." Then the king from the window of his
chamber in the castle threw down his hat, and the com-
batants were separated. The heralds and trumpets
proclaimed Sir Patrick victor.
The preceding account has concerned at least three
castles which looked down on Edinburgh from the
craig : the castle of the kings of the Celtic line, which
was destroyed by Robert the Bruce; the castle built
by Edward III. and David Bruce ; and the palace of
the first two Jameses.
Messrs. MacGibbon and Ross say of the primitive
castle that it l< would no doubt consist of an enceinte
or enclosure of mingled turf and rocks, taking in the
highest and most defensible part of the rock, and would
contain some wooden huts for accommodation of the
garrison. This enceinte would, in course of time, be
superseded by a stone and lime wall, with towers at
intervals, after the manner of mediaeval fortresses.
There was also probably, as usual, a keep or tower,
64 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
larger and stronger than the others, serving as the
residence of the commander, and as the last refuge of
the garrison in case of siege. From the natural con-
figuration of the site the general disposition of the
various parts must at all times have been much the
same. The entrance would always be by the same
narrow pass by which the castle is now approached."
Of this early castle the only remaining part is the
Norman chapel of St. Margaret, that building of which
the whole interior length is less than twenty-eight feet,
and which yet is very impressive in its massiveness, its
simplicity, and its gloom lightened only by small deep-
set Norman windows. It was for long desecrated : at
one time it was divided into two stories and used as a
powder magazine ; at another it served as a shop for
the sale of trashy articles to trippers. It has been
restored to its ancient shape and use by the Antiquarian
Society of Scotland.
It consists of a chancel, bounded on the east by
a wall pierced by an enriched Norman arch, beyond
which is a circular apse, remarkable because it is ex-
ternally square. The entrance is through a modern
porch.
The fourteenth-century castle, like others of the
period, evidently consisted mainly of the strong keep,
called Davy's Tower. This is known from descrip-
tions anterior to the siege of 1573 to have been sixty
feet high, and to have contained a hall, a kitchen,
chambers, and lofts. Its site was above the present
Half Moon battery, and near the centre of it, behind
a courtyard which surmounted the east wall of the
castle. The chapel erected by David II. stood in such
position that it was eventually the north side of the
quadrangle of the palace yard. Maitland, in the
eighteenth century, when it had been assigned to the
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 65
use of the garrison, describes it as " a very long and
large antient church." It has been replaced by
modern buildings.
The west side of the quadrangle is now also
occupied by modern buildings. On the south side is
the parliament hall, which has been carefully restored
and is used as an armoury and military museum. It
is a structure of noble proportions. The upper part
and roof seem to date from the reign of James V.,
who must have replaced the roof constructed under
James II. Many features have undergone alteration,
as, for instance, the windows, which were originally
large and mullioned, and probably gave light from
both the north and the south walls. The vaults on
which the hall was supported contained, as was cus-
tomary, a kitchen and offices. It is said that they
were also used as prisons, and one of them is called
ct Argyll's dungeon." There is no doubt, at all events,
that in the beginning of the nineteenth century some
French prisoners of war were confined in them, an
episode in the history of the castle made very real by
Stevenson's "St. Ives."
The hall communicated at its east end with the
private apartments of the king in the old palace on
the eastern side of the courtyard. This, in its present
condition, is described as "a thing of shreds and
patches . . . built with fragments from old buildings."
At its southern end, however, some fifteenth-century
rooms remain. They were renovated in the reign of
Mary, and include the room in which James VI. was
born. Confined and dark as they are, it is no wonder
that James IV. transferred his court to Holyrood.
The precincts comprehend a number of other
buildings, many of them modern and others of a
purely military interest. This castle, which the queen
E
66 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
of Alexander III. found so sad and solitary a place,
which Scottish kings inhabited only from motives of
expediency, has a truly magnificent prospect. The
New Town of Edinburgh is now to the north of it, and
beyond is the silver band of the Forth, and, still
further north, the coast of Fife and the distant hills,
To the south is a lonelier, a more mysterious country,
the far stretching ranges of the Pentland Hills.
Holyrood Palace stands at the eastern end of the
street which leads down the Castle Hill, through the
old town of Edinburgh, past the site of the gate
known as the Nether Bow, and into the burgh of the
Canongate. It is thus outside the limits of the ancient
city, and its foundation marks the beginning of a less
warlike age, of the time when kings no longer dwelt
in the fortresses of walled towns, but built pleasant
houses within parks and gardens in the suburbs of
their capitals. Further, it is indicative of the less
utilitarian conception of a dwelling-place : the site and
the fabric of the castle were the outcome of military
expediency ; but Holyrood showed the effects of the
culture which the Stewart kings had brought into
Scotland. This influenced not only the architecture
and the decoration of the palace, but also the choice
of its position, amid lands suitable for the creation of
parks and gardens, and at the base of Arthur's Seat
and Salisbury Craigs, where contemporary taste was
least offended by the rudeness of nature, and where
some shelter from the east winds made possible lighter
sports and dalliance in pleasure gardens.
The abbey of Holyrood was founded by King
David I., and had from early times a connection with
the royal house. In 1228 judgment against Gillespie
Mahohegan was delivered in the chapter-house of
Holyrood, and there, in 1255, Alexander III. held a
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 67
council ; and in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
councils and conventions of estates met on several
occasions. In 1343 David Bruce granted to the
abbot the chaplainry of the royal chapel, and the office
of the king's principal chaplain, with power to dele-
gate his duties. The abbey church was this king's
burial-place in 1370. In 1381, when John of Gaunt
took refuge in Scotland, he was escorted by the Earl
of Douglas, Archibald Douglas, Lord of Galloway,
and an honourable company to the abbey of Holyrood,
and there entertained as the guest of the nation. Four
years later, when Richard II. burnt the town of Edin-
burgh, his uncle, mindful of former hospitality, per-
suaded him to spare Holyrood House. The abbey
church was the scene in 1428 of the surrender of the
Lord of the Isles. He came in obedience to a royal
summons ; and in the presence of the king, the queen,
and all the magnates, he knelt before the high altar,
clad only in his shirt and breeches, and implored for
mercy. He tendered his drawn sword, holding it by
the point, to the king ; and at the intercession of the
queen and all the great men he was pardoned. In
this reign there is proof of the residence of sovereigns
in the monastery. In 1429 it was the birth-place of
the twin sons of James I., who were knighted by their
father at their baptism in the abbey church, when
they were named Alexander and James. Alexander
died in infancy ; his brother became James II. of
Scotland, who, as a boy of eight years old, was con-
voyed on the 25th of March 1437 from the castle to
" Halyruidhouse," " with great and glorious triumph."
The nobles rode before him and the people followed
behind, " shouting for joy and crying ' God save the
king.' ' In extraordinary enthusiasm the populace
imputed almost divine virtues to their little king ; he
68 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
was apostrophised by cries of " Oh devout and godly ! "
" Gentle, benign ! " " Oh stout and strang ! " At the
abbey the three estates received him with due ceremony,
and he was there crowned " with common hands
clapping, " for admission to the church had been
denied to none. This king is the first known to have
built at Holyrood : in 1449 an allowance was made in
the Exchequer Rolls for wood, iron, and other materials
for his fabric in the monastery ; and previously, in
1438, an iron lock had been provided for the house in
the abbey in which his hides were kept. He was
buried in the abbey church ; and James III. provided
five ells of satin and twenty-one of buckram to adorn
his tomb, and employed a painter to depict on it his
tunic and arms. The marriage of James III. to
Margaret, daughter of King Christian of Denmark,
took place in the church in 1469 ; and it was probably
to accommodate the royal guests that in this year
thirty loads of straw were bought by royal mandate
for beds in the monastery. In this reign it is clear
that a part of the abbey had been set aside as a royal
residence ; a glass wright received in 1473 ^ve shillings
for making the window of the queen's chamber in
Holyrood House. The Christmas of 1473 was kept
by the king and queen at the abbey; and the Ladies
Glamis, Edmonstoun, Borthwick, and Roslyn were
bidden to the festivities. When James came forth in
1483 from his imprisonment in the castle, he was met
by his brother, the Duke of Albany. He leapt upon
a hackney which awaited him, but he would not ride
forward until Albany had mounted behind him. Thus
together they went " doun the gait to the abbey of
Hallierudhouse, where they remainit ane while in great
merriness " ; and there the king received the obedience
of the lords.
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 69
The palace of Holyrood, to the west of the abbey,
was built by James IV. ; entries with regard to the
expenses of construction are numerous from 1496 to
1505. In the latter year payment was made for the
completion of the great tower ; but already in Feb-
ruary 1502 the king dated a charter from his new
palace. In August his marriage with Princess Mar-
garet of England, the alliance of " the Thrissil and
the Rois," so momentous in its consequences, was
celebrated in the abbey church. " The king was in a
gown of white damask, figured with gold, and lined
with sarsanet. He had on a jacket with sleeves of
crimson satin, the cuffs of black velvet ; under the
same a doublet of cloth of gold and a pair of scarlet
hose ; his shirt embroidered with thread of gold ; his
bonnet black, with a rich ruby ; and his sword about
him. The queen was arrayed in a rich robe like him-
self, bordered with crimson velvet and lined with the
same. She had a very rich collar of pierrery and
pearls round her neck, and the crown upon her head,
her hair hanging. Betwixt the said crown and the
hair was a very rich coif hanging down behind the
whole length of her body."
The occasion was one of much rejoicing ; the
precincts of Holyrood were crowded with spectators
during the ceremony, and the festivities were con-
tinued for a week. There were dinners and suppers,
a largesse proclaimed three times by the Marchmont
herald, games, dancing and music, tilting matches in
the courtyard, which the king and queen watched
from the windows, and in which Sir Patrick Hamilton
was a combatant. A young Italian " played before
the king on a cord very well " ; John Inglish and his
company gave a performance in the queen's principal
chamber after supper on the nth; and on the
70 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
they enacted a morality play. On the loth the king
dubbed forty-one knights, and with the words, " Lady,
these are your knights," he presented them to the queen.
It is through Dunbar's poems that it is easiest to
gain some realisation of such pastimes of the court.
In his " Of a Dance in the Quenis Chalmer," he
describes the manner in which several gentlemen and
two ladies danced singly before the queen : —
" Schir John Sinclair begowthe to dance,
Fore he was new come out of France ;
For ony thing that he do mycht
The ane flit zeid ay onrycht,
And to the tother wald not gree.
Quoth ane, * Tak up the Quenis knycht ' ;
A mirrear Dance mycht na man see.'
Than cam in Maestris Musgraeffe ;
Scho mycht hef lernit all the laeffe ;
Quhen I saw hir sa trimlye dance,
Hir guid convoy and countenance,
Than, for hir sak, I wisset to be
The grytast erle or duik in France ;
A mirrear Dance mycht na man see."
Nicholas Wricht received in the year of the
marriage £10 for his task of the queen's great
chamber of Holyrood House. Other payments were
for the furniture of the palace : 543. for a table and
a chair of cypress, £3 for a double counter for the
bow window of the chamber, 55. for two ells of " ples-
ance " for a table in the king's oratory, £4 for twenty
ells of green frieze to hang in the king's closet,
£12 for arras for the great bed, 133. for webs to make
the lofts of the beds, and various sums for the carriage
to the palace of a feather bed obtained from Flanders,
and of beds, clothes, and hangings from the castle.
The wedding guests slept in 1502, according to
precedent, on straw ; for 355. was paid to the man
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 71
wh<5 provided it, and who also strewed the abbey
close with grass. In 1504 the king granted ^50 to
Maister Leonard, especially for his diligent labour
in the building of the palace. In the same year
there is first mention of the fee, received annually
until the middle of the century by Thomas Peebles,
glazier, for his sustenance of the windows of this
house and those of Stirling, Falkland, and Linlithgow.
A keeper of Holyrood was appointed for life in 1502,
and subsequently.
There is pathos in sparse reflections of the gay
court of James IV. which appear in the treasurer's
accounts : references to the guisers of Edinburgh who
danced in the palace, to the cupboard of glasses
brought from the castle when Mount] oy, king-at-arms
of the French king, dined at Holyrood, to the king's
bards, a queen of May at the abbey gate, a dance
of French minstrels, the maker of the king's organs,
fourteen men who bore a black lady to the palace,
and William Taverner, who received six French crowns,
or four guineas, for a farce played to the king and
queen. The most interesting entry is of the payment,
in October 151 1, of £3, 45. for eleven and a half ells
of blue and six quarters of yellow taffetas, to make
a coat for David Lindsay, for the play performed
before the king and queen in Holyrood. The poet
was then about twenty-one years of age, and is known
to have been in the service of the court. He said
of James IV. : —
" And of his court, throuch Europe sprang the fame
Of lustie Lordis and lufesom Ladyis ying,
Tryumphand tornayis, justing, and knychtly game,
With all pasty me, accordyng for ane king."
Other records are of the sums lost by the king when
he shot with the culveryn in the hall of Holyrood
72 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
House ; his gains were either non-existent or else not
delivered to the treasurer. Considerable expenses were
incurred by the making of gardens, of which the site
was partly provided by the drying of a loch. In 1506
a lion was brought in a cradle from Leith to the
palace ; and subsequently a lion-house was constructed.
The last visit of James IV. to Holyrood was made
immediately before Flodden, when he came in haste
to superintend the removal of artillery from the castle.
He had spent large sums on the building of a
chapel, presumably the structure of inconsiderable
size which was removed in 1671, when the palace
acquired its present form. In 1505 he granted an
annual sum of twenty marks to a chaplain who should
celebrate perpetually at the altar of the Blessed Virgin
and St. Michael the Archangel in the new chapel
within the palace.
Albany, in the troubled years of his regency,
probably resided often at Holyrood. He received
there from an ambassador of the King of France the
order of the knighthood of the Cockle. In 1517,
during one of his repeated visits to France, he left the
government to De la Bastie, who lived at the palace
and provided himself with a guard of eighty French
hagbutters. The popularity of the Gallicised regent
cannot thus have been augmented. The young king
was at Holyrood in March 1524, when Albany's
period of power had ended ; and he there received the
homage of the Earls of Arran, Lennox, Crawford, and
Morton, the Archbishop of St. Andrews, the Bishops
of Glasgow and Dunkeld, and other spiritual and
temporal lords. In 1528, when he had escaped from
his virtual imprisonment by Angus at Stirling, the
lords brought him to Holyrood. The royal house-
hold was reorganised, and new appointments made of
I
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 73
the master of the household, the cupper, carver,
master stabler, hunter, falconer, porter, and a fool
" callit John Makcrerie." On this occasion the king
and his court were in the palace for a year " with
great cheer, triumph, and merriness." There is less
evidence of the amusements of James V. than of those
of his father ; he witnessed at Holyrood a dance of
Egyptians, and lost considerable sums at cards. In
1535 he received, with much solemnity, the order of
the Garter. Two years later he brought his first
queen, Magdalen of France, whom he had married in
face of all warnings as to her delicacy, to Scotland.
The king and queen and their French escort were
received at their landing by the nobles, and accom-
panied to the palace ; and as they passed through the
streets "ane thing gave us occasion to wonder, that
when the nobility and commune people beheld our
queen, at the first sicht sic pleasure they had of her
countenance." The event was the subject of a poem
by David Lindsay : —
" Thow saw mony ane lustie fresche galland
Weill ordourit for resaving of their Quene ;
Ilk craftisman, with bent bow in his hand,
Full galzeartlie in schort clething of grene ;
The honest burges cled thow suld have sene,
Sum in scarlet and sum in claith of grene,
For till have met their Lady Soverane.
Thow suld have sene hir coronatioun
In the fair abbey of the Holy Rude,
In presence of ane myrthful multitude,
Sic banketing, sic awfull tournamentis
On hors and fute, that tyme whilk suld have bene !
Sic Chapell Royall with sic instruments
And craftie musick, singing from the splene,
In this countrie was never hard nor sene !
Bot all this great solempnite and gam
Turnit thow hes ' In Requiem aeternam.' "
74 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
For Magdalen, who is said to have been as pleased
with Scotland as were the Scots with her, entered
Holyrood only to die there a few weeks later, on the
7th of July.
Next year James again brought a queen from
France, Mary of Guise, who came to Edinburgh on
St. Margaret's day, and rode down the High Street
to the palace " with great sports played to her
through all parts of the town." The treasurer's
accounts record the expenses connected with the
journey from St. Andrews to Holyrood, by way of
Kinghorn and Leith, of Madame Montrulis, pro-
bably a member of the queen's French train. She
was accompanied by gentlewomen ; twelve horses
were needed to convey her cooks and other servants ;
her baggage was apparently carried by mules. A
French page, who returned with her to France, was
supplied at the expense of the treasury with a coat of
black velvet, a cloak of Spanish frieze, a black fustian
doublet, a black bonnet, a French riding-hat, a pair of
hose of black cloth of Lille, and a pair of riding-boots.
The introduction of such fashions must have greatly
increased the extravagance of the Scottish court. A
light is thrown on the manner in which Mary and her
ladies passed the short days and the long evenings of
winter in the chambers of the northern palace, by a
record that in December 1540, one pound weight of
" small sewing gold" was delivered to the queen at
Holyrood.
Her infant sons, James and Robert, were buried
next year at " Halyruidhous, whilk was ane fair deid to
this realm." In 1542, immediately after Solway Moss,
James V. came to the palace ; and he remained for
eight days in grievous mortification and despair, " with
great dolour and lamentation of the tinsall and shame
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 75
of his lieges," before he passed into Fife to his death.
He was brought to lie with his sons in the " fair
deid " of Holyrood.
Considerable expenses were incurred in this reign
in connection with the fabric of the palace. In 1523
there is mention of the construction of a casement
window in the west gable, for the queen's great cham-
ber, and of five stone corbels on the walls. Other
references are to French armourers in the palace and
to artillery in its tower. Payments were made to the
gardener; in 1536 to men who worked with the
French gardener. In 1541 certain lands had been
lately included in the park. The mint, called the
" Cunzehous," was situated in 1527 near the palace,
within the close of the monastery, whence its removal
was ordered in 1581.
Treaties between Arran, regent, and Henry VIII.
were solemnly ratified in the abbey church of Holy-
rood on the 25th of August 1543, but were repudiated
in December by the Scottish parliament. The Eng-
lish king's instructions for the subsequent invasion of
Scotland, in May 1544, included the order to "sack
Holyrood House," and the palace is said to have been
rendered wholly desolate. The building cannot, how-
ever, have suffered serious injury, for it was frequently
inhabited by Arran. In June 1554, soon after Mary
of Guise had assumed the regency, payment was made
for the " morris " brought to Holyrood and the play
there ; but it is unlikely that many court festivities
had place in this troubled period. Mary caused the
mass to be celebrated both in her own chapel in the
palace and in the abbey church. When the lords
of the congregation were in possession of Edinburgh
in 1559, they seized the palace with all its rich fur-
niture, and its surrender to the queen-regent was a
76 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
condition of the truce which began on the 26th of
July. Mary returned to Holyrood ; but in 1560, at
the approach of the English army, she retired thence
to the castle, where she died on the loth of June.
In the minds of most people Holyrood Palace is
chiefly connected with Mary Stewart. The brilliance
of this queen's court was spurious ; it had, unlike that
introduced by James IV., no relation to the life of
the people ; but in its very contrast to the stern and
narrow ideals which in fifty years had changed the
Scottish nation, it had a dramatic quality. Mary,
then in her twentieth year, arrived at Leith at about
ten in the morning of the I9th of August 1561, in the
company of Claude d'Aumale, Due de Lorraine, Rene,
Marquis d'Elboeuf, Francis de Lorraine, grand prior,
and other gentlemen ; and she was convoyed to
Holyrood an hour afterwards. Her first conflict
with her subjects occurred within five days. On the
24th of August preparations were made for the cele-
bration of mass in the chapel of the palace. The
Master of Lindsay and other gentlemen of Fife were
standing in the abbey close, and they raised a shout —
"The idolatrous priest sail dee the deith, according
to God's law." The candles which a servant was
carrying into the chapel were taken from him, broken,
and trodden under foot ; and more objects connected
with the service would have been thus treated, if
members of the queen's household had not inter-
vened. In the crowd around the palace no man of
the old religion and no Frenchman dared make him-
self heard ; and a riot, which would have resulted
at least in the lynching of the priest, was averted
only by Lord James Stewart, "whom all the godly
did reverence," and who took upon himself to keep
the chapel door, under the pretext that he would
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 77
suffer no Scot to enter it. The mob dispersed ; but
in the afternoon the people went to Holyrood in
great companies and signified their determination
against any reversion to the old faith ; and meantime,
within the palace, the queen's panic-stricken servants
clamoured to return to France. The wiser heads
brought pacification by assurances to the Scots that the
queen would be converted after the departure of her
French uncles, and by a proclamation which confirmed
the religion of the land as it had been on her arrival.
Mary made her entry into Edinburgh on the
2nd of September, and she was accompanied back
to the palace by some children driven in a cart,
who had formed part of the pageant for her recep-
tion. On her arrival they addressed her on the sub-
ject of the abolition of the mass, and sang a psalm.
Then in her outer chamber they presented her with a
gilded cupboard which had cost 2000 marks, and
which she accepted with thanks.
In this beginning of her rule the queen had,
at Holyrood, her first conference with Knox. She
summoned him on account of a sermon he had
preached against the mass, and none other but James
Stewart was present at their interview. Knox's atti-
tude to sovereignty was new to Mary ; in the midst
of their speech " the queen stood still as one amazed
more than a quarter of an hour, and her counte-
nance was changed. Lord James began to entertain
her with fair speeches, and demanded, c What hath
offended you, madam ? ' At length she said, ' Well
then, I perceive my subjects must obey you and not
me, and sail do what they please and not what I
command ' " ; and Knox replied, " It is my care,
that both princes and subjects obey God." The
meeting ended when the queen was called to dinner ;
78 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
and, for all her self-control, she had quite failed to
win over her antagonist. " If there be not in her,"
he said afterwards to his friends, <c a proud mind,
a crafty wit, and an indured heart against God and
His truth, my judgement faileth me."
Some of the lords of the congregation were less
obdurate against her flattery, her hints of possible
attendance at preachings, and her conscientious
scruples. When Lord Ochiltree arrived in Edinburgh
he was greeted by Robert Campbell of Kinzeancleugh :
" Now, my lord, ye are come, and almost the last
of all. I perceive that the fiery edge is not off
you. But I fear ye become as calm as the rest when
the holy water of the court sail be sprinkled upon
you. For I have been here now five days. At the
first I heard every man when he came say, * Let us
hang the priest ! ' But after they had been twice
or thrice in the abbey all their fervency was cooled. I
think there be some enchantment at the court whereby
men are bewitched."
Mary's offences were not all dictated by religion.
She was wont to say that she saw nothing in Scotland
but gravity, which could not agree well with her, who
had been brought up joyously ; and when she was not
in the presence of the council, when she, her fiddlers
and her dancing companions were alone in the palace,
" there might be seen unseemly scripping, notwith-
standing she was wearing the dool weed." Her young
uncle, d'Elboeuf, was with her at Holyrood in the
winter of 1561 ; and he, Bothwell, and John, Lord of
Coldingham, created scandal by gallant exploits and
by nightly incursions into Edinburgh, which once
almost terminated in a serious encounter with the
Hamiltons. Arran, the head of that house, is said
to have borne immoderate love to the queen ; and one
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 79
night the town of Edinburgh was called to watch the
palace, on the pretext that he had an intention to abduct
her. No attempt ensued, and the rumour was alleged
to have originated with the queen and her advisers, for
the purpose of securing a guard of hired soldiers.
On the 7th of February 1562, James Stewart,
Prior of St. Andrews and the queen's natural brother,
was made Earl of Mar; and on the next day he
married Agnes Keith, daughter of William, Earl
Marshal, at St. Giles's church. After the wedding
he was escorted by all the nobility to the palace,
where a banquet took place, at which the queen
was present ; and in the evening there were various
sports, apparently sham combats and horse-races, and
a display of fireworks. A number of gentlemen, who
included William Kirkcaldy of Grange, were knighted
by the queen.
The ambassador of Sweden was honourably received
by Mary at Holyrood House on the 2Oth of May.
The day was that of the marriage of Lord Fleming ;
and the queen and court, with their guest, witnessed a
representation of the siege of Leith on Duddingston
Loch, for which a castle and galleys had been con-
structed of timber, and which was rendered realistic
by the shooting of great guns. The ambassador left
at the end of the month, and the queen gave him at
parting a chain valued at a thousand crowns.
The winter of 1562 was again spent by Mary at
Holyrood. Knox asserts that when she heard of the
renewed persecution of Huguenots in France, " then
dancing began to grow hot." Her distractions led
him to preach against the vanity of princes ; and, as a
consequence, he was summoned to the palace for a
second interview. In the royal presence he rehearsed
his former strictures, but added : " Of dancing, madam,
8o ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
I do not utterly damn it, provided two vices be avoided :
the former, that the principal vocation of those that
use that exercise be not neglected for the pleasure of
dancing ; and second, that they dance not, as the
Philistines their fathers, for the pleasure that they take
in the displeasure of God's people." And Mary again
showed remarkable restraint. " I know," she said,
" that my uncles and you are not of one religion ;
and therefore I cannot blame you, albeit you have no
good opinion of them."
This winter is marked by the sad story of Chatelar's
love for the queen. He had come to Scotland in the
train of St. Amville, the son of Anne Montmorency,
Constable of France ; and his master, it is said, was so
enamoured of Mary that he could hardly be persuaded
to return to his own country, and that he left Chatelar
to urge his suit. The queen distinguished the poet
with her favour, and singled him out particularly at
a masked ball. Knox and the English agent Ran-
dolph, both hostile witnesses, accuse her of encouraging
his passion. At all events, on the night of the 1 2th of
February, he had the madness to conceal himself under-
neath her bed. It is said that in her fury, when she
discovered him, she sent for her brother James Stewart,
now Earl of Moray, and demanded that he should
immediately slay her lover; and that Moray at first
consented, but on second thoughts refused. Chatelar
repeated his offence at Burntisland ; and he was con-
veyed to St. Andrews, tried, and beheaded on the 22nd
of February 1563.
There was, while the queen was at Stirling in this
year, an outbreak of indignation against the celebration
of mass in the chapel royal. Some zealous Protestants
had been appointed to watch at the palace and note
who attended the service ; and certain of them, after
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 81
numbers of people had entered the chapel, rushed in
among them. Patrick Cranstoun advanced towards
the altar where the priest was ready to officiate : " The
queen's majesty is not here," he said. " How dare
thou then be so malapert as openly to transgress law ? "
The congregation was thrown into confusion ; the priest
and the French ladies raised a shout ; and Madame
Raillie, mistress of the queen's maids, sent a mes-
senger to St. Giles's church to bid the laird of Pittaro,
comptroller, then at the sermon, come and save her life
and the palace. He hastily secured the company of
the provost and bailies of Edinburgh and a sufficiency
of men, and went down to Holyrood to find the
disturbance at an end, save for " a peaceable man for-
bidding the transgression of laws." This person was
presumably haranguing the crowd. Cranstoun and
Andrew Armstrong were bound over to keep the
peace.
In 1563 the most extraordinary of all Mary's in-
terviews with Knox took place at the palace. He
had delivered to the lords assembled for parliament a
warning against her marriage with a Roman Catholic,
and this seemed to her the last insult. He was sum-
moned to the palace, and accompanied thither in the
afternoon by Ochiltree and others ; but only John
Erskine of Dun entered the queen's cabinet with him.
On this occasion she did not employ her wit to modify
his antagonism. She appears to have sent for him in
a fit of baffled rage, and she overwhelmed him with
reproaches. "I have borne with all your injurious
speeches uttered both against myself and my uncles ;
I have sought your favour by all possible means ; I
offered unto you presence and audience wheresoever it
pleased you, and yet I cannot be quit of you. I vow
to God I sail once be avenged." She was interrupted
F
82 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
by her tears, and even shrieked in her anger ; her
chamber-boy could hardly supply her with handker-
chiefs. " What have ye to do with my marriage ? "
she demanded. As she wept and moaned John
Erskine, " a man of meek and mild spirit," strove to
calm her by flattery ; he praised her beauty and her
excellent parts, and declared that all the princes in
Europe would be glad to seek her favour; but he
only " cast oil in the flaming fire." Knox, while he
abated nothing from his position, deprecated her grief
and anger. But the queen was the more offended;
and at last she ordered him from her presence, and
desired him to await her pleasure in the outer chamber.
Erskine remained with Mary, and was joined by the
lord of Coldingham.
The queen's ladies were seated in her outer room
clad in their gay and beautiful dresses; and we are
told that when Knox came out to them they were
frightened, and that he stood among them as a
stranger, supported only by the presence of Ochiltree.
A silence must have fallen on the chamber ; but
presently the preacher made profit of the occasion.
"Oh, fair ladies," he said, "how pleasant were this
life of yours if it should endure, and in the end ye
might pass to heaven with all this gay gear ! But
fie upon that knave Death, which will come whether
we will or not ! And when he hath layed on the
arrest, the foul worms will be busy with this flesh,
be it never so fair or tender ; but the silly soul, I fear,
sail be so feeble, that it can neither carry with it gold,
targetting, nor precious stones." Thus grimly he
passed an hour, until he was dismissed by the laird
of Dun.
A Roman Catholic marriage was not prevented.
In 1563 Matthew, Earl of Lennox, was released from
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 83
his outlawry, at the market cross of Edinburgh. On
the 23rd of September 1564 he arrived at the lodging,
near the palace, of the commendator of Holyrood
Abbey, preceded by twelve gentlemen outriders, wear-
ing velvet coats, and having chains hung round their
necks, and followed by thirty gentlemen and servants,
well mounted, and clad in grey livery. Immediately
an honourable messenger summoned him to the royal
presence, and he was received before most of the
nobility of the kingdom. He was restored to his
lands and honours on the 9th of October, and on
the 2yth he was reconciled in the palace, by the queen
and council, with the Duke of Chatelherault and
the Earl of Arran. They shook hands and drank,
each to the others.
Owing to the inadequacy of the palace for the
accommodation of her court, the queen, in December
1564, granted to Lord Ruthven and his wife, the
Lady Joneta Stewart, whose attendance she had com-
manded, certain monastic buildings of Holyrood.
They were a great house and walls at the east end
of the New Frater, a vault beneath it, and the crouch-
house on its south side, all of them in a ruinous state.
In February 1566 Darnley returned to Scotland.
On his coming to Edinburgh he danced with the
queen, and the history of the court for the next
few months is that of her passion for him, and of
the consequent dissensions of the nobles. On the
22nd of July the approaching marriage of Mary
and Darnley was proclaimed in St. Giles's church and
in the chapel royal ; and on that day, between three
and four o'clock in the afternoon, she conferred on
her prospective husband, in the palace, and with
magnificent ceremonial, the dukedom of Albany. On
Sunday, the 2£th, they were married in the chapel
84 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
by John Sinclair, Dean of Restalrig, in the presence
of all the nobility except Moray and his adherents.
The hostile action of Moray caused instructions
to be issued to the town of Edinburgh in September
to keep a watch at the palace. In the same month
James, Earl of Bothwell, had audience of the queen,
and was graciously received. He apparently spent
the following winter at the court. On the 2yth
the queen and Darnley summoned certain chief citizens
of Edinburgh to the palace and demanded from them
a loan of money. They refused to grant it, and were
imprisoned in the old tower.
In February 1566 Rambouillet, ambassador of
the King of France, arrived at Holyrood with thirty-
six horse in his train. He lodged with Henry Kinloch
in the Canongate ; but he was at once received by the
queen and her husband. At noon on the loth of
the month he ceremoniously conferred on Darnley,
in the palace and in the presence of the nobles, the
order of the knighthood of the Cockle. Afterwards
the queen, Darnley, and the ambassador went to the
chapel to hear mass ; but most of the nobles refrained
from following them. In the evening a banquet was
given to Rambouillet in the old chapel of Holyrood,
which was newly and magnificently hung with tapestry
for the occasion ; and a maskery was provided by the
lords. On the following night the queen again made
a banquet for the ambassador, and it also was followed
by a mask, in which the queen, her Maries, and her
other ladies were dressed as men. Thus clad they
presented to Rambouillet and each of his gentlemen
a whinger suited to his estate, bravely made and
encased in embroidery. A banquet took place at the
castle on the next day; and on the I4th the ambas-
sador took his leave.
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 85
Some ten days later Bothwell was married in the
abbey church to Lady Jean Gordon, daughter of the
late Earl of Huntly. The event was celebrated by a
banquet given by the queen, and by rejoicings which
continued for five days and included joustings and
tournaments. Six gentlemen of Fife were knighted.
The inner history of the court in this winter tells
of the increasing confidence placed by the queen in her
Italian secretary, David Riccio, the advance to favour
of Bothwell, and the breach between Mary and her
foolish husband, whose dissipations were particularly
notorious during the visit of the French ambassador.
The Lords Morton, Lindsay, Ruthven, and Lennox
took advantage of the peevish jealousy of Darnley to
obtain his adherence to a bond which aimed imme-
diately at the murder of Riccio, ultimately at the
restoration of Moray and the banished lords. Ruth-
ven had been for two months confined to his room by
illness, yet he would not relinquish the leadership of
the enterprise. On the evening of the 9th of March
he arrived in the close of Holyrood with two hundred
gentlemen, among whom were his son, the Master, and
Morton and Lindsay. The captain of the guard, the
laird of Traquair, was absent with his men : he is
alleged to have been aware of the conspiracy. Ruthven
took the keys of the palace from the porter, and then
appointed a detachment of his followers to wait in the
inner court, in case those within should raise a tumult.
Morton, with a number of friends, made his way
to the chamber of presence, and there he walked up
and down until the moment for action should come.
Ruthven had gone to Darnley's room ; thence with
his son, and with Andrew Ker of Faldonside, Patrick
Moray of Tullibardine, George Douglas, bastard son
of the Earl of Angus, Patrick Bannatyne of Stainhouse,
86 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
James Scott, deputy-sheriff of Perth, and Henry Yare,
a revolted priest, he followed Darnley up a privy
staircase to the queen's room. It was supper-time :
Mary was at table with her half-brother, Robert
Stewart, the Countess of Argyll, Robert, Bishop of
Orkney, Riccio, and others. Her husband first entered
the room, came up to her and put his arm round her
waist. Then in the doorway she saw the dying
Ruthven, clad in armour, " lean and ill-coloured,"
and behind him his associates, all holding naked
swords. She was startled : " What strange sight,"
she said to Ruthven, " is this, my lord, I see in you ?
Are you mad ? " He answered, " We have been too
long mad ; " and he then addressed Riccio, ordered
him to depart from the supper-room, and recited his
offences. Darnley, it is said, took occasion to affirm
his innocence of the enterprise ; and meanwhile Ruth-
ven had not persuaded to his fate in the outer room
the terrified Italian, who had taken refuge behind the
queen ; and who, when the earl presently advanced
towards him, clung with his arms to his mistress. She
took hold of him and spoke some words of authority ;
but he was violently pulled away by Andrew Ker, who
held a pistol to her breast. The miserable victim was
hustled into the chamber of presence, to be met by
Morton and those who waited with him. Amid a
great confusion, while tables and candles were over-
turned, he was slain on the threshold of Mary's supper-
room. It is said that he received fifty-three wounds,
the first from Morton, and that some one took advan-
tage of the tumult and the semi-darkness to pluck
Darnley's dagger from its sheath and thrust it in the
corpse, thereby to give authority to the deed. The
queen meanwhile turned furiously on her husband and
asked him the cause of the cruel murder, and he
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 87
answered only that no harm was intended to her.
Then she upbraided him, accusing him of ingratitude,
since from a private gentleman she had raised him to
be a king and her husband ; and thereupon he " avoided
the room." We are told that when one of her maids
came to tell her that Riccio was dead, she dried her
eyes and said, " No more tears ! I will now think
upon revenge." Ruthven, when all was over, came
back into her chamber, sat down and called for a
drink. He must have been nearly fainting from his
exertion, and when she cried out at the new indignity
he took little notice. Then she warned him that her
unborn son would one day avenge her.
The Earls of Bothwell, Huntly, and Athol were at
this time lodged in the palace. Lethington is accused of
having been privy to the murder, and of having supped
with Athol, partly to restrain him, partly to keep him-
self free from suspicion of complicity. Bothwell and
Huntly, when they heard the noise of a fray, had
assembled the " cooks and spits and some other
rascals," but had been soon driven back by Morton's
dependents. The noise of this disturbance is alleged
to have caused the summary end of Riccio, whom
otherwise his murderers would have preserved, that
they might make a public spectacle of his death. The
three earls escaped from Holyrood by a back way.
The noise had aroused the Canongate ; the cry ran
through the streets that " Signor Davy " was slain, and
the queen held captive. The common bell rang ; and
the men of Edinburgh put on their armour, and hurried
down to Holyrood with their provost, Simon Preston
of Craigmillar. There they were received by Darnley,
who assured them, on his honesty, that the queen was
well "and nothing affrayit," and persuaded them to
return home. They were quit for the expenditure of
88 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
^4, 75. 6d. on wax for the thirty-five torches which
had lit them to the palace.
On the three following days, the loth, the nth,
and the i2th of March, Mary displayed much presence
of mind and ingenuity. She removed Darnley's de-
lusion that the conspiracy had in any way aimed at the
enhancement of his dignity ; and so resumed sway over
his mind that he called her " a true princess, and he
would set his life for what she promised." Ruthven
and his band set their guards to keep her prisoner in
her chamber ; but she procured that her ladies should
be restored to her, and, probably through their means,
was able to communicate with her friends. On the
1 1 th the banished lords returned to Edinburgh, came
into her presence, and begged on their knees for par-
don. She gave them fair words and granted all their
requests. Moray appears to have had a separate inter-
view with her, when she asked him to remove her
guards and he excused himself from compliance. The
lords concerned in the murder were also received, with
the exception of Ruthven whose presence she refused
to tolerate. She promised to go to the Tolbooth on
the next day, and to grant consent in parliament to an
act of remission ; and then she drank the health of her
enemies, severally. The lords were deceived and dis-
armed ; and when she pleaded that the guards had for
two nights deprived her of sleep, they delivered the
keys of the palace to her servants, and suffered her
chamber to be kept, as usual, by her own men. Her
escape had already been consorted with her husband by
the medium of Sir William Stanley, an Englishman.
At midnight the two left the palace ; Darnley was
accompanied only by Stanley, and the queen by one
lady. Sir Arthur Erskine, her master stabler, waited
with horses near the ruined abbey. Mary mounted
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 89
behind him ; her lady behind Traquair, captain of the
guard ; and a certain Sebastian Brown rode singly.
This little company of seven people and five horses
set out for Dunbar, by way of Seton. There ensued
the triumph of the Roundabout Raid : on the iyth of
March, Moray and his adherents left Edinburgh, and
on the morrow it was re-entered by Mary. She and
Darnley passed, for safety's sake, to the castle on the
25th ; and there, on the I9th of June, the prince after-
wards James VI. of Scotland and I. of England was born.
The spring had witnessed the breach between Mary
and Darnley consequent on her discovery of his sub-
scription of Ruthven's bond, and a reconciliation which
preceded the birth of the prince. Darnley in September
met the council in the queen's chamber at the palace,
and was blamed for ingratitude to his wife and queen,
shown in a desire to leave her. On the 29th of January
1567, she brought him from Glasgow, where he had
been ill, by way of Stirling and Linlithgow, to the
small house near Edinburgh called Kirk-oVField. On
the loth of February a musician of the queen named
Sebastian or Bastian, perhaps he who had ridden with
her to Seton, was married at the palace, and the
festivities were graced by her presence. After supper
she visited Darnley ; but as she was sitting with him
she announced that she must go, for she had forgotten
part of her duty : she had not danced after supper, nor
convoyed the bride to bed. She therefore returned to
Holyrood. Bothwell was at that time lodged in the
palace ; and it is alleged that, after all had gone to their
chambers and the guards had been set, he left it, and
that the murder of Darnley was then accomplished.
There is contradictory evidence as to the effect which
the tidings of the deed had on Mary. Darnley 's body
was hurriedly brought on a board to the churchyard
9o ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
of Holyrood Abbey ; some say that it was laid without
ceremony beside that of Riccio.
On the 1 6th the queen went from Holyrood to
Seton, leaving her infant son in the palace, in the
charge of Huntly and Bothwell. On the i9th he
was conveyed to the Earl of Mar at Stirling. Mary
was at the palace on the day of Bothwell's trial on the
1 2th of April. On that morning a messenger of
Queen Elizabeth, sent on the petition of Lennox to
beg for an adjournment of the trial, arrived at Holy-
rood. He had difficulty in obtaining an entrance ;
finally Bothwell himself undertook to deliver his letter,
but presently returned from the errand and said that
the queen was asleep. The earl's horse was brought
to him ; he mounted, glanced back at the palace, and
Mary nodded to him from a window.
The abduction of the queen by Bothwell took
place on the 24th of April ; his divorce from his wife
was pronounced by decrees of the 3rd and yth of
May ; on the 6th he entered Edinburgh with Mary ;
and on the I5th she was married to him at ten in
the morning, in the chapel royal, by the Protestant
ceremony. Adam, Bishop of Orkney, who officiated,
first declared Bothwell's repentance for his former
offences and his adhesion to the Reformed faith. Of
the nobility only the Earls of Crawford, Huntly, and
Sutherland, and the Lords Arbroath, Oliphant, Flem-
ing, Livingstone, Glamis, and Boyd were present ;
together with the Archbishop of St. Andrews, the
Bishops of Dunblane and Ross, and some gentlemen
dependents of Bothwell. " Neither pleasure nor pas-
time was used, as was wont when princes married."
A month later Mary Stewart came for the last
time to Holyrood. It was after the battle of Carberry
Hill, and she had delivered herself into the hands of
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 91
the insurgent lords. The escort which they provided
bore a banner painted with the death of Darnley. She
was brought to the palace at ten o'clock on the night
of the 1 6th of June, and was greeted by insulting cries
from the people of Edinburgh, who assembled to see
her pass. At midnight she was hurried on to Loch-
leven Castle.
After her departure the lords made an inventory
of the plate and jewels at Holyrood. On the 24th,
the Earl of Glencairn went with his servants to the
chapel royal, and noisily broke down the altar and
defaced its ornaments. He gained praise from the
ministry, but was blamed by the lords for acting with-
out warrant. On the 3rd of July all the queen's silver
plate was taken from the palace and struck into thirty-
shilling pieces.
The body of the murdered regent Moray was
brought from Leith to Holyrood on the I4th of
February 1570. Thence Kirkcaldy of Grange, "in
dule weid," led the funeral procession, which passed
up the Canongate and the High Street to St. Giles's
church ; he bore a banner emblazoned with the red
lion. After him came Colville of Cleish, Moray's
master of the household, who carried another banner,
painted with the dead man's arms ; and there followed,
as bearers of the body, the Earls of Athol, Mar, and
Glencairn, the Lords Ruthven, Methven, and Lindsay,
the Master of Graham, and others.
In the desultory war of the next three years, that
between the parties of the queen and of King James,
the palace has a place. In April Lord Seton, Mary's
staunch friend, who had Lady Northumberland in his
company, assembled near it his forces, and " made no
small brag" that he would enter Edinburgh. In
August, it was held by the queen's party, and Maitland
92 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
of Lethington wrote to her that he and Kirkcaldy of
Grange, captain of the castle, had caused the removal
to the castle of all its tapestry and furniture. Grange,
in March 1571, appointed outside it a nightly watch.
After the hanging, in April, of the Archbishop of
St. Andrews, he turned it into a garrison and fortified
it. The proclamation published against him in May
cited among his misdeeds that he had placed his men
of war in Holyrood House. In July it had been gained
by the king's supporters, and was occupied by a
garrison of a hundred men under Captain Michael.
These, on the loth, chased back the queen's men of
Edinburgh, who had come down to Holyrood in
an attempt to cut off a company of horse and foot.
On the night of the I5th another sally was made from
the castle and town. The attacking party approached
very near the palace before they fired ; and then were
led to think, because a little wicket in the outer
entrance had been purposely left open, that the
garrison had fled. They passed through the gate,
and thus caught in a trap, they received considerable
damage and were routed. Some cannon and great
culveryn were brought on the 25th to Blackfriars
Yard and directed against the palace, but were re-
moved after three or four days. In October Mar
retreated with the force which was besieging the
castle and which wanted necessaries, to Leith and
Holyrood House, in order that " noblemen and others
might repose." An attempt at betrayal was made in
April 1572 by certain soldiers of the garrison. Some
companies of Edinburgh, provided with ladders, were
led to the palace, within which two accomplices were
in readiness. The preparations were perceived by
Captain Michael's page who raised a cry of treason ;
and the captain started up, drew his sword, and be-
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 93
headed a soldier in the very act of opening a window
to the men of the town. These immediately retired.
In August the French ambassador, Du Croc, sent to
negotiate between the king's party and the castellans,
was at Holyrood. A parliament was held there on
the 3rd of April 1573. In May the castle capitu-
lated; and on the i8th of June Burghley had news
that the regent Morton intended to keep his prisoners,
Lord Home, Grange, Lethington, and Robert Mel-
ville, at Holyrood, until he knew the pleasure of the
queen of England with regard to them.
In 1575 Christian, daughter of George Douglas of
Parkhead, was married in the chapel royal to Edward
Sinclair, feuar of Roslyn. In that year, after the
passing of the plague, the regent Morton came from
Dalkeith to Holyrood. He surrendered the palace
and the mint after his resignation in March 1578.
Workmen were repairing Holyrood House in June
1579 with glass and other necessaries. On the 3<Dth
of September it was visited by James VI. for the first
time since his infancy. He was escorted by Morton,
Angus, Argyll, Montrose, Mar, Lindsay, Ochiltree,
the Masters of Livingstone and of Seton, and some
two thousand horse. He made his entry into Edin-
burgh on the 1 7th of October, and passed from the
West Port down to the Nether Bow and thence to
the palace. The citizens met him in arms ; the castle
guns fired a salute in his honour : " he was ane gret
delyt to the beholders." He spent all the winter
at Holyrood. In October a lodging there, the nearest
to the king's and the fairest but for his, was prepared
for Esme Stewart, Lord of Aubigny, nephew of the
late Earl of Lennox.
The influence of Aubigny, henceforward known by
his uncle's title, brought downfall to Morton. The
94 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
arrest of this earl was planned for the 26th of Decem-
ber, but on that day he went hunting with the king ;
and Robert Stewart, now Earl of Orkney, and the
Abbot of St. Colme, were able to give him a warning.
He made light of his danger, and we are told that
" few doubted the sequel." Between six and seven
o'clock on the evening of the 3ist he was surprised
in his chamber at Holyrood, and taken into the king's
presence ; and Captain James Stewart of the guards
there charged him with complicity in Darnley's
murder. In his defence he made a "large dis-
course," and concluded with certain bitter words
directed against his accuser. Stewart replied in like
style ; and the two would have fallen to blows had
they not been separated by the Lords Lindsay and
Cathcart. Morton was then removed into the chapel
where were his servants ; and Stewart, ejected by
another door, joined the Gordons who were waiting in
great numbers, eager for a broil. The friends and
retainers of the earl wished to carry him off to a place
of safety ; but he insisted on joining the council.
Stewart, hearing of his presence, hurried thither also ;
and another "ruffle" would have ensued had the
same lords not intervened. The servants of Morton
were then ordered to depart on pain of treason, and
commanded by him to obey.
He was removed while the council arbitrated on
his sentence. Angus, like him a Douglas, and Lennox
declined to vote. Eglinton suggested a conference
with the king's advocate, who advised the committal
of the accused man until he should be tried. He was
therefore ordered, on pain of treason, to keep ward
in his chamber at Holyrood ; and was conveyed several
days afterwards to Edinburgh Castle.
On the 1 8th of January the king commanded the
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 95
provost and bailies of Edinburgh to provide a hundred
hagbutters who should attend him at the palace, by
day and by night, during the time of Morton's re-
moval to Dumbarton. Fears of treason and of an
English invasion produced like measures in February.
On the loth the city magistrates were instructed to
supply, until the meeting of parliament on the 2Oth,
a nightly watch of thirty able burghers, well armed
with spear, musket, hagbut, and morion. On the
2Oth it was ordained that the palace should be
guarded by relays of sixty of the most honest and
best armed inhabitants of the city, to be relieved every
twenty-four hours.
Additional honours were in August 1581 con-
ferred in Holyrood House on Lennox, henceforth
a duke, James, Earl of Arran, Orkney, Gowrie, and
Lord Maxwell, now Earl of Morton. On Sunday
the nth of November Cowrie's daughter was married
in the chapel to the Master of Ogilvie ; and there were
great rejoicings and a display of fireworks.
The Ruthven Raid and the ascendancy of Gowrie
and his party ensued ; and in the autumn and winter
of 1582-3 James was at the palace as a prisoner. The
magistrates of Edinburgh were on the i6th of October
1582 directed to provide a very numerous guard of
townsmen for the palace during the time of the meet-
ing of parliament. It was to consist of 1 20 hagbutters,
to be relieved every twenty-four hours ; and the other
inhabitants were charged to be ready for any sudden
tumult. On the I9th of November a mandate to the
provost and bailies ordered them to have at the
palace, by day and by night, thirty of their neighbours,
hagbutters, well supplied with musket and powder.
On the 25th of October, Angus, who had pro-
mised to enter into no bond or league without the
96 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
king's knowledge, was received by James at Holyrood
and made welcome.
The plot which was a desperate attempt of Lennox
to regain his ascendancy, and to which some allege
that James was himself a party, was discovered late
in November or early in December. The duke
awaited results at Blackness, and various of his friends
were in the environs of Edinburgh. It had been
planned that a number of armed men should conceal
themselves in the chapel royal, and after supper,
when the king was at dessert, enter by the door under
the long gallery, and surround and seize him. They
intended then to kill Mar and Colville and to prevail
upon James to send for Lennox.
On the joth of January 1593 a notice was affixed
to the place of the city magistrates in St. Giles's church.
This purported to have been written at Dunkeld in
September by certain of the royal councillors, and
advised the provost and bailies that the king was
kept a prisoner against his will, and that they must,
on pain of treason, arm, become possessed of his
person, and suffer him to pass out of Holyrood and
into England. The privy council pronounced the
document a forgery, and affirmed that the king's
guard was not more numerous than was necessary.
A year later an act of the council alluded to this time
of the king's restraint and captivity in Holyrood House.
In the next autumn he was there as his own
master, with Arran as his dominant minister. In
November the city magistrates decided to protest
against the excessive number of one hundred well-
armed burghers, whom he had directed them to have
continuously at Holyrood, for a space of time, as a
guard. He desired in the following March that
successive quarters of the town should, in rotation,
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 97
undertake the watch at the palace for twenty-four
hours, and an ordinance was made accordingly.
Francis, Lord Bothwell, the nephew of the notorious
earl, had begun a tumultuous career at court. On
the 28th of November 1583 he engaged in a brawl
with Lord Home, which was interrupted by Seton,
Colonel Stewart, and others. It is said that when he
was at the palace, later in the day, the king hung on
his neck in affection ; but as he was leaving at night
he was charged to enter into ward at Linlithgow.
His place of imprisonment was changed on the morrow
for his own house, and several days later the king
sent for him, and accused him of " many hard
speeches." Lady Arran, with whose husband he had
quarrelled, cried out for his head.
On the 3Oth of November there was great alarm at
Holyrood, because Angus was about to pass from
Dalkeith to the Firth of Forth, thence to go into
ward beyond the Spey. The drum was beaten in the
streets of Edinburgh, and the citizens charged to be
ready to defend their sovereign at an hour's warning.
The provost went to the palace, and, when he saw the
king, remarked to him that the fields were foul, to
which James answered grimly that they would be fouler
after his dogs had been let loose. All this fear of an
attack proved groundless.
In December the court was visited by Andrew
Keith, a Scot in the counsels of the King of Sweden.
He was, although of humble birth, " a gallant man of
proportion and fashion"; and on the I5th of March
he received at Holyrood, with all wonted solemnity,
the title of Lord Dingwall.
In October 1584 the king announced his intention
of again spending the winter at the palace ; and of
keeping only a moderate court, and forbearing too
G
98 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
frequent conventions of the nobles and other persons,
for fear of the "inconveniences" of the pestilence.
The citizens of Edinburgh were ordered to be ready to
defend him against all treason, rebellion, or attempted
violence, whenever they might be advertised by the
firing of cannon or the ringing of the common bell of
the town.
He made, in May 1587, a few months after his
mother's execution, a whimsical attempt to end the
perpetual feuds of his nobles. They had attended
the Convention of Estates in great numbers ; and on
the 1 4th he entertained them at a banquet at Holyrood,
drank their healths thrice over, and then called upon
them to enter into a bond of brotherly love, vowing
that he would be the mortal enemy of him who first
broke it. On the next night he led them in procession
from the palace to the castle ; the gibbets were broken
on the way ; at the Tolbooth the prisoners were set
free ; and at the market-cross a table was found spread
with wine, bread, and sweetmeats, and all pledged
each other, to the sound of singing, trumpets, and
cannons that fired from the castle. Only William,
Lord Yester, refused to take his enemy's hand ; and
thus incurred immediate imprisonment in the castle.
This is the scene which is described in " The Fortunes
of Nigel." " ' I mind it weel,' said the king, ' I mind
it weel — it was a blessed day . . . and it was a blithe
sport to see how some of the carles grinned as they
clapped loofs together. By my saul, I thought some
of them, mair special the Hieland chiels, wad have
broken out in our own presence ; but we caused them
to march hand and hand to the cross, ourselves lead-
ing the way, and there drink a blithe cup of kind-
ness with ilk other, to the stanching of feud, and
perpetuation of amity. Auld John Anderson was
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 99
provost that year — the carle grat for joy, and the
bailies and councillors danced bareheaded in our
presence like five-year-old colts, for very triumph.' '
The following winter was spent by James at Holy-
rood in studying the Apocalypse, with a view to the
signs of the year 1588, of which wonders had long
been foretold by astrologers. On the 25th of May
1588, the levies of Edinburgh and Haddington were
commanded to meet at the palace in order to accom-
pany him on his expedition into Dumfriesshire.
In July he was again at Holyrood ; and on the
loth, Both well and Sir William Stewart, Arran's
brother, gave each other the lie in his presence.
When he went, soon afterwards, over the water to
Fife he left Bothwell behind him ; and the earl, on
the 3Oth, met his enemy in the High Street. A
brawl ensued in which Stewart was slain ; yet the
king came back to the palace to find Bothwell still
there, " as nothing effrayed."
In August Elizabeth's ambassador, Ashley, arrived
with offers as large as was the fear of the Armada,
and as fully realised. The king, in the following
winter, was attended at the palace by Huntly and his
faction ; and in the pleasance behind the council-house
Huntly and some of his friends were, on the 24th of
May 1589, examined by James and certain councillors,
as to their rebellion earlier in the spring.
In the beginning of 1590 preparations were in
course for the reception of the king and his bride,
Anne of Denmark. James wrote letters of instruc-
tions from Copenhagen : three portions of the palace,
the new gallery quarter and the lodgings of the Bishop
of Orkney and Lady Orkney, were to be set aside
for the Danish commissioners and guests, and any
further accommodation necessary was to be provided in
ioo ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
Kinloch's house, in which the Earl of Lennox had
lodged in 1564. The work begun in Holyrood House
was to be completed before the arrival of the king
and queen. To this a sum of j£iooo, subscribed by
Edinburgh to the tax lately levied on burghs, was
devoted by the privy council ; subject to a stipulation
made by the town council that thus the citizens might
be exempted from an equivalent contribution to the
master of the household.
At about four o'clock on the afternoon of the 6th
of May, James and his queen were escorted from Leith
to Holyrood. The king and the nobles were on
horseback ; the queen drove in a Danish coach, drawn
by eight horses richly apparelled in cloth of gold
and purple velvet ; and the townsmen of Edinburgh,
Leith, and the Canongate were ranked in arms on
either side of the road. When the palace was reached
James dismounted, took the queen by the hand, and
led her through the inner close to the great hall,
and thence to her chambers which were richly hung
with cloth of gold and silver. The coronation took
place on the lyth. First of all, before the queen left
her room, the title of Lord Thirlestane was conferred
on the chancellor, and certain knights were dubbed.
Then the procession passed from the palace to the
chapel royal. They were led by the king's household,
followed by the nobility, knights, and burgesses. After
them came the ministers; and next Angus with the
sword, Hamilton with the sceptre, and Lennox with
the crown. The king followed with Athol, Montrose,
Moray, and Mar who bore his robe royal. Behind
these were the Lords Seton, Herries, Livingstone, and
Ogilvie ; and after them, between the English ambas-
sador and the admiral of the Danes, the chancellor who
carried the crown matrimonial. The queen was at the
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 101
end of the procession and was accompanied by the
English ambassador's wife, the Countesses of Mar and
Bothwell, and other ladies. Three sermons, in Latin,
French, and English, and two short orations delivered
by the ministers, formed the first part of the ceremony.
The Duke of Lennox and the ladies then escorted the
queen to a cabinet within the church. She was clothed
in her robe royal and brought back to her chair, and
the crown was placed on her head. Then Lady Mar
loosened her dress, and Master Robert Bruce, one of
the ministers, anointed her right arm, her forehead, and
her neck. She received the sceptre from Hamilton
and the sword from Angus ; and then for a long time
drums and trumpets sounded, and guns were fired
from the castle. The procession left the chapel in
the order in which they had entered it. Such was
the first Protestant coronation which took place at
Holyrood.
Manners had changed since James IV. entertained
wedding guests. In 1590 fifteen feather beds were
provided in the palace for strangers, Danes and others,
from the 4th of May to the i8th of July, at a cost of
2s. a night for a bed ; and other Danes were lodged
outside the palace in eight chambers, each furnished
with two feather beds, wax, and a candle.
Early in the next year measures were taken to
prevent the extortions practised on the king's servants
in the neighbourhood of his palaces. James ordained
that his masters of the household should, within
twenty-four hours of his arrival at one of these, fix
the charges at which his servants must be entertained ;
and he directed the provost and bailies of Edinburgh,
the Canongate, and other places, to see that ostlers and
any accustomed to lodge men and horses conformed
to such arrangement. Probably the increased number
102 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
of court dependents had placed them at the mercy of
landlords comparatively few.
In the ensuing winter the Kirk curiously illustrated
its conception of its own position. Masters Robert
Pont, David Lindsay, and John Davidson went down
to Holyrood on the 8th and again on the loth of
December, "to visit the king's house and try what
negligence was in pastors and abuses in the family."
On the second occasion they saw the king, and urged
him to have Scripture read aloud at the hours of dinner
and supper, and to dismiss the comptroller. Two
years later three ministers were sent by t*he general
assembly to admonish the queen on an over-fondness
for dancing shared by her ladies.
The wild Earl of Bothwell made on the 28th of
the month an attempt on the king's life. He arrived
at Holyrood with a number of accomplices, almost all
Border men, at about supper time. An entrance was
effected through the stables of the Duke of Lennox,
who thus incurred suspicion, and with the help of
Margaret Douglas, Bothwell's wife. The invaders
appear to have ranged violently through the palace,
without a fixed plan and without even a knowledge of
where the king was. They set fire to the door of his
private chamber, and threatened his servants with
death if they would not enable his discovery. James
was not in his room : they began to hammer down the
door of the queen's chamber, and then, either because
it too was empty or because they were interrupted,
they retreated ; but in their flight they strangled some
servants. James Erskine, son of the Master of Mar
and the king's familiar servant, was "violently ex-
cluded." William Shaw, master stabler, and John
and Patrick Shaw were slain. The common bell of
Edinburgh rang, and the townsmen hastened to the
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 103
palace with their provost, to find that the earl had
escaped, together with all his confederates except
seven or eight who were subsequently hanged at the
market-cross. Some doggerel was composed by James
in gratitude to John or Patrick Shaw : —
" Thy kyndnes kythit in lossing lyffe for me,
My kyndnes on the friendis I utter sail.
My perrell kendlit courage unto the ;
Myne sail reveng thy saikles famous fall :
Thy constant service ever sail remayne
Als fresh to me as if thou lived againe."
On the following day he publicly gave thanks in St.
Giles's church for his delivery. The persons chiefly
implicated in the attempt were James Douglas of
Spot, Andrew Wauchope of Niddrie, John Colville
of Strathurdie, William Stewart, once constable of
Dumbarton, Hercules Stewart of Whitelaw and James
Stewart, John Hamilton of Samuelstown, William
Learmonth of the Hill, Robert Home, younger of
the Heuch, George Auchincraw of East Reston and
Patrick Auchincraw, Thomas Cranstoun of Morieston
and his brother John, John Ormeston of Smailhome
and Robert his son, Patrick Crumy of Caribdin, and
David Orme of Mugdrum.
Bothwell continued to trouble the king's peace.
In 1592 a letter fixed to the gates of the palace warned
James of plots made against him. On the 3rd of
February 1593 it was rumoured that the earl intended
to make another attempt on Holyrood. The magis-
trates of Edinburgh secretly intimated to the citizens
that, by the king's desire, they must that night come
together in armour ; and two hundred armed men
went down to the palace before ten o'clock. The
king thanked them for coming ; but ordered them
io4 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
to return to keep the town, and to leave three
arquebusiers to watch the abbey.
The house of the Cowries, on the site of the
monastic buildings granted to them by Queen Mary,
communicated with the palace by a covered passage.
On the night of the 2jrd of July the Countess
of Athol passed along it from the palace, to bid good-
night to her mother Lady Gowrie ; and on her way
she admitted Bothwell and John Colville. They
hid themselves behind the hangings in the king's
antechamber, and Lady Athol locked the door between
the rooms of the king and the queen. From two to
three hundred men, probably of the house of Stewart
to which Bothwell's mother had belonged, assembled
outside the palace. In the morning Bothwell rapped
rudely at the king's chamber door ; and when it was
opened entered with Colville, each of them with his
drawn sword. The king was dressing ; his clothes
were loose, and " the points of his hose not knitted
up." " Lo, my good bairn," said Bothwell, "you that
have given out that I sought your life, it is now in
this hand." The king would have fled by the door
of the queen's room, but could not open it. Then
he told his visitors that they might take his life,
they would not get his soul. But Bothwell and
Colville knelt down, laid their swords on the ground,
and prayed for pardon. They protested that they
came not to seek his Highness' life, but to ask his
pardon for the raids of Holyrood and of Falkland ;
and they offered to c< thole an assize " for witchcraft
and for attempts on his life, and to follow only his
commands. Lennox, Athol, and Ochiltree, all Stewarts,
as well as Spynie and Dunipace, had arrived on the
scene, and they interceded for the suppliants. This
seeming humility did not deceive James ; and, mindful
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 105
of the results of the Ruthven Raid, he declared that
he would not live a dishonoured prisoner. Bothwell,
still on his knees, kissed the hilt of his sword, and
then tendered it to the king, bowing his head and
flinging back his long hair. He was taken apart by
James into a recess by the window.
In the meantime the common bell of Edinburgh
had rung twice to call to arms the citizens, who how-
ever showed little enthusiasm. The provost and some
hundred men went down to the palace and others fol-
lowed slowly. Alexander Home of North Berwick
and a few more gentlemen came below the king's
window, and cried out to know how he did, offering
to rescue him or to lose their lives. But the king
from the window answered that he was no captive,
but safe and well ; he had expected this visit of Earl
Bothwell ; he had received fair promises of the earl ;
he would hold with the earl, as the earl held with
him ; and he asked the assembled men to retire a
little while he consulted further. They went to
the south-west corner of the close ; but Home lingered
beneath the window to engage in hot words with
Bothwell, who presently was moved to protest that
he had done, would do, and could do, as much in
the king's service as any Home in the Merse, and
that he would reckon with this Home another time.
Then within the palace James, probably from his
knowledge of the powers behind the conspirators,
granted all their requests. The offences of Bothwell
and his accomplices were forgiven ; the dismissal of
the chancellor Thirlestane and other ministers was
promised ; the conspirators might retire whither they
would. He sent for the provost and bailies and
told them that he wished the citizens to disperse ;
he hoped all would be well ; and he appeared at the
106 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
window with the queen and gave further assurances.
A new guard for the palace had however been
appointed by Ochiltree ; and Ochiltree, Lennox, and
Spynie accompanied James when he rode to Falkland
immediately afterwards. He returned on the loth
of August ; but stayed only for the trial and acquittal
of Bothwell on a charge of witchcraft.
On the nth his escape from his captivity by the
Stewart and Hepburn faction was planned to take
place. The Hepburns were at feud with the Catholic
Homes, who on this occasion were leagued with the
Gordons and with Morton, the Douglas of Lochleven.
Certain Erskines were also of the king's party, and two
of his gentlemen, Leslie and Ogilvie. It was announced
that he was to return to Falkland ; but his true
destination was Lochleven Castle, whither he was to
ride while Home, in Edinburgh, attacked Bothwell's
party. But early on the morning of the nth Leslie
was discovered as he stole through the park of Holy-
rood to bear the king's ring and a letter to Home.
He was given, with Thomas and James Erskine and
Ogilvie, into the charge of Ochiltree's guards ; and
Bothwell refused to leave James until he himself
had been restored to his honours by act of parliament.
Eventually the preachers and citizens of Edinburgh
arranged a compromise, in virtue of which Bothwell
and his chief opponents, Thirlestane, Home, and
Glamis, agreed to avoid the court until the conven-
tion of parliament in November. The king then rode
to Falkland.
The adventure of the 24th of July figures in the
proclamation issued against Bothwell in 1594, after
his final disgrace, as an " entering in his Majesty's
presence in maist irreverent and barbarous manner."
On the 29th of September 1596, the nobility,
'
W S
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 107
council, and estates were advertised that they must
on the 28th of November next attend the baptism
of the king's daughter at Holyrood. Many of them
were, however, owing to the winter season, absent
from the ceremony, which was performed without
solemnity. Bowes, the English ambassador, held up
the infant princess as witness, and named her Eliza-
beth after his queen. She was afterwards famous as
the beautiful and unfortunate queen of Bohemia.
In January 1597 James was at Holyrood, in the
midst of his task of reducing the Kirk to submission.
At five o'clock on the evening of the loth, as John
Boge, master porter, stood in the twilight at the
palace gate he was accosted by a stranger. "Sir, I
have met with you weil, for I was seeking you ; for
I have a letter unto you from the minister of Kil-
conquhar in Fife, who, as you know, is heavily
vexed for the king's sake and deprived of his office.
He hath sent me unto you with this letter, which
ye sail read and deliver it unto the king's Majesty,
that the king may know more than he knoweth ;
and I sail come to you the morn, and seek an answer."
John delivered the letter as the king was passing to
supper, and James opened it immediately. When
he had read it, he was so transported by anger that
he could eat no food that night. It contained a
free criticism of his government.
On the previous I7th of December that tumult
had taken place in Edinburgh which was consequent
on the rumour of a great Popish plot. It had re-
sulted in the removal of the court from Holyrood
and the Court of Session from the city, the abolition of
Edinburgh's privileges as a capital ; and the burghers
were terrified by the danger of a declining trade.
Early in 1597 the magistrates and town council
io8 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
visited the king at the palace ; they protested that
they had committed no treason in connection with
the disturbance, although in some points they had
neglected their office. On the 2Oth of March they
went to him again and reminded him of their past
services and their present readiness to serve. He
replied that he desired their submission not for
treason, but for a failure to discharge their duty on
the day of the tumult. Two days later they yielded.
The magistrates and a number of citizens went in the
morning to Holyrood, confessed on their knees that
they had offended as the king said, and made a peace
offering of 2000 marks. James received them with
favours, and in the afternoon peace was proclaimed.
On the next day he went to the council-house of
Edinburgh and there ratified the reconciliation ; and
he drank to the council and called them his gossips.
The bells of the city were rung ; James was convoyed
back to the palace through the West Port, amid a
sound of trumpets and pipes and much merrymaking.
He again entered Edinburgh on the I3th of April,
when the town entertained him at a banquet, and
once more escorted him back to Holyrood.
The king's third son, Robert, died on the 2yth of
May 1602, at the age of only four months. His body
was secretly carried to Holyrood for burial.
There was soon afterwards a strange instance of
the survival of the practice of trial by combat. An
Italian accused Francis Mowbray of treason, and it
was arranged that the two should fight hand to hand,
on the ist of January 1603, in the great close of
Holyrood. The " barrasse " had been made and all
preparations completed, when, a few days before the
appointed date, news came from England that certain
Scotsmen would certify the treason.
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 109
On the night of Saturday, the 24th of March
1603, Sir Robert Carey, who had ridden from London
in less than three days, arrived at the gates of Holy-
rood with the news that Queen Elizabeth was dead. A
few days later came the announcement from the privy
council that James had been declared King of Eng-
land. He left Holyrood on the 5th of April, and,
during the remaining twenty-two years of his life,
he visited it only once again, although he departed
from his ancient kingdom with a promise that he
would come to it every three years.
The queen brought Prince Henry to the palace
from Linlithgow on the 28th of May. On the 3ist
she drove with him in a coach to St. Giles's church,
and was accompanied by many English ladies, some in
coaches and some on horseback. Great numbers of
people gathered to see the prince. He and the queen
set out for England on the 1st of June, with the
Duke of Lennox and other gentlemen. Little Princess
Elizabeth was unwell and remained at Holyrood until
the 3rd, when she followed her mother by slow
stages.
All the furniture of the palace was then apparently
stored in the wardrobe or elsewhere. On the I9th of
June, Montrose, as chancellor, together with the clerk
of the king's register, went to Holyrood ; and they
found, beyond the contents of the wardrobe and " some
boards, forms, and stools," " ane knok," or clock, in the
council-house ; two pieces of tapestry in the chamber
above the queen's cabinet ; a Turkey coverlet on the
table in the outer chamber of the master of works ;
and, in his inner chamber, a fairly wrought pend for
a bed, without head and back pieces, but with " court-
ings for the frontell" and the foot, a chair covered
with purple velvet, the coverlet of a table made of
no ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
red velvet over white satin, and an old coverlet of
" changing talfetie " for a bed. Two pieces of
tapestry were lying in the passage which led to the
"wild bestial." All these goods were delivered into
the keeping of Thomas Fentoun, together with the
door-key of the chamber in which the bell hung, and
the tables and desks that stood in it.
In the sixteenth century Holyrood Palace is de-
scribed as " most ample and superb," and as situated
in " most pleasant gardens which a lake at the foot of
the hill of Arthur's Seat closes." James VI. frequently
hunted in the park of Holyrood ; and there are records
of payments to the keeper of the park and to the
gardeners of the south and of the north gardens. In
1589 Thomas Fentoun, keeper of the park, had charge
of the king's lion, tiger, " lucervis," and game-cocks,
which doubtless were kept in the " wild bestial."
The topography of the palace and its grounds is
made clearer by some royal grants of the monastic
lands of Holyrood. In 1581 Adam, Bishop of Orkney,
received the " south yairdis " of the canons, which
included the garden of St. Anne and another garden,
and which were bounded by a wall and ditch next
to the king's woodland or park, a road leading to
that woodland from the palace, the pond or stank
of the gardens now granted, and the way between the
postern of the monastery and the back gate or pos-
tern of the palace which was next to Lord Cowrie's
house. Confirmation was given in 1582 to the
bailiff of the Canongate, of a grant to him by the
commendator of Holyrood of the ruinous buildings
once the brewhouse and barn of the abbey and adja-
cent lands ; all of them between a common way and a
gate leading to the king's woodland, and a pond, on
the north and the east ; the stone wall of the woodland
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD in
on the south ; and that of the king's garden on the
west. The refectory called the New Frater, and the
conventual kitchen and two cubicles above and below
it, and two gardens, were confirmed in the same year
to William, Lord of Ruthven. They were between
the dormitory of the monastery on the west, the
commendator's dwelling-place and the garden called
the Siege of Troy on the east, the common passage to
the western door of that garden on the south, and the
southern wall or ditch of the conventual cemetery on
the north. In 1592 the king granted to his "daily
servant " Thomas Fentoun some land outside the
"utter port of Halyrudhous," on the south side
of the street, beside the lane which led to the royal
stables and to the anterior gate of the tower called
" lie foiryet tour," presumably the tower of the front
gate.
In 1590 James, for the better provision of his
household, augmented by his marriage, took into his
own hands his parks in Edinburgh and elsewhere, and
in 1597 all dispositions of the palace and park of
Holyrood were cancelled by act of parliament. It is
probable therefore that some rights over the park had
been alienated. In 1607 it was in the possession of
Lord Balmerino, president of the council and principal
secretary of the kingdom, and he complained that
certain persons had molested his tenants and servants
by pasturing their bestial in it, by demolishing its
dykes and gates, and by casting into it turf amL other
matter, to the injury of the grass. In 1610 tenants
occupied the park, and employed it as arable and
pasture land. Proclamation was ordered in 1607
at the market-cross of Edinburgh that none should
make any spoil of the king's game, nor hunt nor slay
hares with hounds, " girnis," shot or otherwise, within
ii2 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
six miles of the palace, under pain of imprisonment
and fine. This appears to have revived an old pro-
hibition.
The repair of a ruinous part of the palace was
undertaken in 1604, and the lord secretary was em-
powered to assign to it workmen employed on any
other enterprise.
It had become customary during the sixteenth
century for the king to be accompanied, on occasions
of the meeting of parliament, from Holyrood to the
Tolbooth and back again, by the three estates, mar-
shalled according to their rank, <c rydand on horseback,
cled in futemantle and other ornament, clothing and
abulyiement requisitie." The order of their going was
settled anew in July 1 607 ; the procession was to be
led by the " lords of parliament," after whom should
come the bishops, and after them the earls, all two by
two. The two archbishops were to follow, and behind
them the marquesses, who should walk in front of the
honours. Thus disposed the estates were directed to
accompany his Grace from the palace to the parliament
house, at eight o'clock on the morning of the nth of
August.
A visit of the Duke of Wurtemburg to Scotland
was announced in 1608. James commanded that he
should be lodged and entertained at Holyrood, and
served by those who held office in the king's house ;
and Andrew Melville was instructed by the privy
council to attend upon him.
On the 26th of November 1615, the Archbishops
of St. Andrews and Glasgow took the oath of
allegiance in the chapel royal, before divers of the
nobility and council, members of the College of Justice,
lords and gentlemen.
Fashion and trade languished in Edinburgh for
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 113
thirteen years for want of a court. In 1 6 1 6, however,
it was rumoured that the king would at last come to
Scotland, and the report was confirmed by the repairs
which were undertaken at Holyrood. James had
announced his visit to the privy council for the early
spring of 1617 ; anc^ tne preparations were inspired by
an ambition that Scotland should not be shamed before
the Englishmen who would come in his train. The
council commissioned James Murray, master of the
king's works, to carry out certain improvements, on
which large sums of money were spent. He must
demolish the roof and as much of the stone work as
was necessary of the lodging known as the chan-
cellor's above the upper gate, and rebuild it. The
master steward's chamber was to be taken down and
not built again, since it lacked form and proportion to
the rest of the palace. The chamber and gallery
called " Sir Roger Ashton's chamber " were to be rebuilt
in more convenient form. The roof, joists, and walls
of " Chancellor Maitland's kitchen," at the end of the
" Dukis Transe," were to be renewed where necessary.
The " toofalles " and walls must be removed from the
bakehouse yard in order that it might form a perfect
close.
The king ordered also the repair of the chapel
royal, and its provision with desks, stalls, lofts, and
other necessaries, " in decent and comely form." It
was found that this work could not be carried out
as perfectly as was desired by native craftsmen, and
the deputy-treasurer was permitted to contract with
Nicholas Stone, carver and citizen of London, by pay-
ment to him of ^450 of English money, to set up a
" parapane " wall, some desks, and other ornaments.
Further, it was agreed to pay £200 to Matthew
Gudrick, citizen and painter of London, for the paint-
H
H4 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
ing and gilding of the chapel. Wooden statues of the
apostles and the evangelists were carved and gilded,
but caused such scandal that the bishops dissuaded the
king from allowing use to be made of them. Organs
were however brought to Holyrood. Musical ser-
vices had been held there previously, for a luter was
appointed to the chapel in 1601.
In October 1616, many craftsmen were at work at
Holyrood, especially on the chapel. In the following
February it was ordained that, owing to the urgency
of the work, craftsmen might be compelled to come
to Holyrood from any parts of the country. Letters
of the council to the magistrates of Dundee, Dysart,
Pittenweem, St. Andrews, Glasgow, Linlithgow, Cul-
ross, and Preston, therefore required that certain named
masons, plumbers, wrights, and painters should be
sent immediately from those places.
Proclamation was made in February 1616, at the
market cross of Edinburgh, that none should hunt
hares within eight miles of the palace, before Sep-
tember 1617. Robert, Earl of Lothian, was appointed
king's gamekeeper in this area, with power to bring
before the council all found killing wildfowl within
it. In December 1616 the council agreed to buy a
number of wedders, to be fed in Holyrood Park for
the entertainment of the king. They ordered the
keepers of the park and meadow to remove their stock
from it; and covenanted with the tenants to do as
much until Michaelmas 1617.
In March 1616, it was ordained that the causeway
of the Canongate, between the palace and the Nether
Bow, should be kept free of beggars.
The magistrates of the Canongate were directed to
give to the council a list of all lodgings and stables in
their town in which the king's train and followers
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 115
might be accommodated. They replied that all had
already been secured by nobles, lairds, and gentlemen
of Scotland. Proclamation was therefore made, in
February 1617, tnat these provident persons would
be disappointed, for the lodgings and stables would
be reserved for the king's train. Alexander, Lord
Elphinstone, was summoned before the council on the
27th of February, and asked if he would give up his
house at Holyrood to the use of the king's suite during
the approaching visit. He replied that this and all his
other houses were at the king's service ; but, since he
purposed to attend his Majesty at Holyrood, he hoped
it might please the king that a part of it should be
reserved for his own lodging.
The king's long expected entry into Edinburgh
was made on the i6th of May 1617. The usual
pageants distinguished his reception ; he passed from
the city down to the palace, and there he was met by
the professors and students of Edinburgh College, who
presented him with some poems made in his praise.
There were great men in his train : Lennox, for whom,
like the king, Holyrood must have recalled strange
scenes ; Bacon, Arundel, Southampton, William Her-
bert, Earl of Pembroke, and Villiers, Earl of Bucking-
ham, all curious as to this northern land and northern
court whence their king had come ; and Laud, who saw
everything in its relation to his own policy. On the
1 7th, service was held in the chapel royal, "with
singing of quiristours, surplices and playing on
organes." The king crossed the Forth on the I9th,
and was absent some ten days. It was announced that
on his return he intended to hawk on the moors and
other lands near the palace ; and therefore a proclama-
tion at the market cross of Edinburgh forbade any to
slay wildfowl within ten miles of the city, during the
n6 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
king's residence at Holyrood, under pain of a fine of
j£ioo for each offence. On Whitsunday, the 8th of
June, all noblemen, councillors, and bishops who were
in Edinburgh, were commanded to be present at the
chapel royal for the celebration of communion in the
English form. On the nth James made a ceremonious
visit to Morton at Dalkeith ; and arrangements were
made for the conveyance thither of his luggage by
the inhabitants of several parishes. Parliament was
opened on the lyth, and the estates rode with the
king, in their wonted order, from Holyrood to the
Tolbooth. Special instructions were issued to the
commissioners of the smaller baronies, who had appa-
rently been remiss in their attendance, to accompany
him on horseback and with foot-mantles. On the
1 9th, his birthday, James entertained his English and
Scottish lords at a banquet at the castle which lasted
from four to nine o'clock. Afterwards he came down
to the palace ; and the people then gathered round
Holyrood to see an exhibition of fireworks and " pas-
times." James left Edinburgh about the end of this
month, and during the first fortnight in July his
luggage was conveyed southwards by the inhabitants
of various parishes in the Lothians.
On the 2yth of July the king recommended to the
council that, since he had bestowed so great expense
on the repair of the palace and chapel of Holyrood,
" some face of a court " should there be kept ; that
it should be the meeting place of the privy council,
whose members should attend every Sunday at the
sermon in the chapel, and that the ordinary service
should be maintained in the chapel.
Councils had throughout the reign of James VI.
been most often held at Holyrood. It was definitely
constituted their meeting place by a proclamation at
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 117
the market cross of Edinburgh in 1618, confirmed by
an injunction of 1626. In 1627, however, a special
order of the king allowed the councillors to meet in
Edinburgh during the winter. Parliaments had also
sat at Holyrood with some frequency in the end of
the sixteenth century.
The king's desire that all councillors should, when
in Edinburgh, attend Sunday sermon in the chapel
royal was again intimated to them in 1619, and
special seats were reserved for the nobility, the coun-
cil, and the Court of Session. The necessity to be
present was irksome, because episcopal ritual was
observed in the chapel at other times than that of the
king's visit. Thus Christmas services were held there
in 1617 and in 1618, and the organs were played.
The demand for the attendance of the privy council
and the Court of Session at sermon was repeated by
Charles I. in 1627.
In 1619 a grant of property for life was made to
William Couper, Bishop of Galloway and dean of the
chapel royal, because he could no longer be com-
modiously lodged within the palace ; and an agreement
was concluded by which Christian Lindsay, the widow
of William Murray, master of the king's carriage,
quitted certain houses, which she occupied in the outer
close.
In this year a visit to the palace of Ludovic, Duke
of Lennox, was announced ; and on the 9th of August
Sir Gideon Murray of Elibank, deputy treasurer, was
ordered to deliver for his use to Sir Robert Stewart of
Shillinglaw, a considerable quantity of plate, linen, and
kitchen utensils, all to be returned before the 29th of
the month.
The king was, both in 1620 and in 1621, expected
in the following year ; and therefore proclamation was
n8 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
made that none should hunt nor hawk within six miles
of Holyrood. The earlier prohibition was the more
explicit, and forbade the killing of " pouttis " before
the loth of July, of partridges before the I5th of Sep-
tember, and of wildfowl or deer by any but noblemen,
who must exercise moderation in their sport. Its
application was not confined to the neighbourhood of
Edinburgh.
On the 1 4th of June 1621, Sir Jerome Lindsay
of Annatland was knighted in the king's chamber of
presence at Holyrood by Alexander, Earl of Dun-
fermline, lord high chancellor. Afterwards a sermon,
preached by Adam, Bishop of Dunblane, was heard in
the chapel royal ; and then, in the chapel, the earl
created Sir Jerome Lyon king at arms. He delivered
to him his coat of arms, which was put on him, placed
the crown on his head, and gave him his baton.
In 1624 it was ruled that the chapel royal should
be served by sixteen prebendaries and musicians, six
boys, an organist, and a porter. Each prebendary was
to have an allowance of 200 marks, each boy half that
amount, the organist 240 marks, and the porter ^40.
These salaries were to be provided out of the rents of
the chapel, supplemented, when necessary, from the
revenues of such vacant prebends and chaplainries as
were in the king's hands. In the same year certain
repairs of the chapel roof, the queen's tower, the
king's gallery, and the chancellor's lodging were
ordered.
The first notice of Holyrood under Charles I.
concerns a quarrel, in 1626, between the Duke of
Lennox, chamberlain, and John Achmowtie, master
of the wardrobe, as to which of them should appro-
priate the mourning hangings of the palace. In July
1628 Charles announced that he would visit Scotland
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 119
for his coronation and the holding of a parliament, in
the following September. Weighty affairs in England
would render his stay short. He asked the council
whether it would be " fittest and most conspicuous
and convenient " for him to be crowned in the church
of St. Giles or the chapel royal. They reported a few
days later in favour of St. Giles's. On the I4th the
hunting of hares with ratches or greyhounds within
eight miles of Holy rood was forbidden on account of
the approaching visit. It did not take place. A like
prohibition as to hunting, in honour of a visit to take
place in the ensuing spring, was made in February 1629.
The bailies of the Canongate were ordered to keep the
causeway between the Nether Bow and the palace free
and clean of beggars ; certain persons were appointed
to survey the chapel and palace and report on necessary
repairs ; a thoroughfare through the churchyard of
Holyrood, which had caused an accumulation of rubbish
beside the chapel and beneath the windows of the gallery
of the palace, was prevented by the closing of a stile.
Another disappointment followed. In July 1630 the
estates were appointed to meet at the palace. A
visit of the king was again expected to take place in
the spring of 1630, and in that of 1632 ; on the
former occasion the council delegated to certain the
fresh consideration of the question of his coronation
in the chapel royal or in St. Giles's; in February 1629
and in November 1631 the earlier proclamation for
the preservation of game was repeated.
At length, in 1633, Charles I. came to Scotland.
His advent was announced in January, and on the
22nd of the month a commission reported to the
council on the state of the chapel royal, in which the
king had now decided to be crowned. The council
had already, in 1626, complained of its ruino .s state.
120 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
The masters of the works were instructed to take down
the old window on the east gable in the great arch,
and to build on it a fair new window of good stone-
work, and a window at the eastern end of the north
aisle ; to build up the north-western steeple with stone,
timber, and lead, so that it might receive a peal of
bells ; to repair the south-western steeple, the great
west door, and the west gable ; to strike out lights in
that gable, and to take down its two turnpikes and
repair and roof them ; to remove all lofts and desks ;
to remedy defects of pillars ; to complete the plastering
of the north aisle and make it conform to the south ;
to provide materials for erection of the throne and
other degrees of honour. Other work was undertaken
on the palace. It was ordered that, for the king's
more commodious access to his north garden, a door
should be struck through the north side of the wall of
the great tower of the palace, between the two round
towers. Owing to their exceptional charges the masters
of the work were granted for the months of March,
April, and May an exemption from the terms of the
contract by which they held office, and received instead
occasional advances of money from the deputy treasurer.
The old inhibition as to the hunting of hares within
eight miles of Holyrood was made on the 22nd of
January. On the 3ist all dwellers in the palace and
in the castle were directed to remove themselves and
their belongings. Warning was given by proclamation,
in May and previously, that any who had engaged
lodgings and stables in the borough of the Canongate
would be disappointed, as all accommodation had been
reserved for the king's train and followers. The
magistrates of Edinburgh and the Earl of Roxburgh,
as superior of the Canongate, were ordered to provide
sand in abundance with which to cover the streets ;
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 121
" some honest man with ane kairt and horse " was to
remove refuse from the public ways ; and its deposit
in them was temporarily forbidden ; the heads of
malefactors were taken down from the gates.
On the 1 5th of June Charles I. entered Edinburgh.
He was met at the Long Gait at one o'clock by the
nobility, who accompanied him into the town. The
procession was led by the lords, followed by the
bishops, the earls and viscounts, the two archbishops,
the lord chancellor and the treasurer, the almoner and
the master of requests, and the usher who preceded
the Lyon king at arms and certain of his brethren.
Behind came the lord chamberlain, and at his right
hand the Earl of Errol, who bore the sword in its
sheath. The king followed ; and the Marquess of
Hamilton came a little behind him, and, as master of
the horse, led the horse of state. The town of Edin-
burgh was ranked on either side of the street ; and the
pageants which honoured the reception were such as
had not been seen " for many ages." Thus. Charles
came through the city and down to " Halyrudhous."
He brought with him a very brilliant company, amongst
whom Bishop Laud was conspicuous. He slept at the
castle on the night of the iyth of June; but other-
wise he remained at Holyrood until the ist of July,
and also from the loth to the i3th of that month.
The coronation took place in the chapel on the
1 8th of June, and the ceremony was performed by the
Bishop of Brechin, assisted by the Archbishop of St.
Andrews and the Bishops of Moray, Dunkeld, Ross,
and Dunblane. All these wore the rochet and sleeves ;
and a table had been decorated in the manner of an
altar, clasped books and lighted candles were used, the
bishops were seen to bow when they passed a piece of
tapestry on which the Crucifixion was depicted. The
122 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
Bishop of Moray had been constituted almoner ; and
he threw out among the people certain silver pieces
struck in honour of the occasion. The riding of par-
liament was the next event. In the beginning of
July the provost and bailies of Edinburgh and other
boroughs were instructed that James Liddell, sergeant
of his Majesty's pastry, and Thomas Spence, Crystal
Russel, and Thomas Stennop, royal bakers, might
impress as their assistants, while the king was in the
country, such skilled and able persons as they should
name. The arrangements for the transport of the
king's luggage were like those made in 1617.
In May 1634 Charles desired the council to receive
communion in the chapel royal on the first Sundays in
July and December.
For more than thirty years Holyrood Palace had
stood outside the main current of history. The events
in its story which had reflected greater happenings had
been isolated and had had little sequence. It was to be
again the centre for actions of wider import.
In 1637, after the riot consequent on the attempt
to impose Laud's liturgy on Scotland, the king com-
manded the council to hold their session at Linlith-
gow. They obeyed by deliberating there for one day,
and then returning to Holyrood. Hamilton was at
the palace in 1638, when he was acting as intermediary
between Charles and the Covenanters. In December,
when the imminence of war was undoubted, he loaded
one of the king's ships, called the Swallow, with the
royal plate, tapestry, and other valuables from Holy-
rood, together with his own plenishing from Hamilton,
and sent them to London. The king announced his
intention of being present at the general assembly and
parliament of 1639 ; but on the 3rd of July an attack
was made in the streets of Edinburgh on the carriages
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 123
of Kinnoul and of the lord treasurer Traquair. The
occupants escaped with difficulty to Holyrood ; and
the king embraced the excuse for not risking his person
in the city. In December 1 640 Traquair, on his return
from a visit to the king, took the crown, sword, and
sceptre from Holyrood, where they had lain since last
the king rode the parliament, and transferred them to
the greater security of the castle.
On the 1 4th of August 1641, Charles entered
Edinburgh for the last time. He was met by sundry
Scots nobles and convoyed through the city to the
palace, hearing on the way a speech from the provost
and bailies, who delivered to him the keys of the town.
They found him inattentive and "somewhat melan-
cholious after his travel, coming all the way post by
coach." There were not more than a hundred persons
in his train. In the first part of his stay a show of
loyalty almost convinced him, in spite of the fervour
of Protestantism, that all was going well ; but the
mysterious affair of "the Incident," which brought
a crisis, occurred in October. It was alleged after-
wards that a plot existed to inveigle Argyll, Hamilton,
and Lanark into a drawing-room in the palace, on the
night of the i ith, on the pretext that the king wished
to speak to them. Two lords were then to enter the
room from the garden, and were to be followed by
a large company who should slay or kidnap the three
lords entrapped. Charles himself told the sequel to
the estates on the following day. " Yet, my lords,
I must needs tell you a very strange story. Yester
night my Lord Hamilton came to me, I being walking
in the garden, with a petition of very small moment,
and thereafter in a philosophical and parabolical way,
such as he sometimes had used, he began a very strange
discourse to me." He asked leave to depart from
i24 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
the court because his enemies had calumniated him
to the queen ; but his true motive was due, according
to later assertions, to the discovery of the plot ; and
he, his brother Lanark, and Argyll, retired on the I2th
to his house of Kinneil. The public inquiry which
the king demanded was not accorded ; the result of
"the Incident" was the dominance of Argyll and his
party and the fall of Montrose.
On the lyth of November, Charles and his estates
rode the parliament. Afterwards the king was
escorted back to the palace ; and he then " frankly "
banqueted the nobles " in royal and mirrie manner,"
while the castle fired a salute of thirty-two shot.
He left Holyrood and Edinburgh for England on
the next day. Hamilton, now a duke, took up
house at the palace in July 1642, when the general
assembly had met. He had about him a strong
guard, composed of friends and servants, and lived in
some state. He was regular in his attendance at the
council, where, according to a hostile witness, " he,
the chancellor, the Marquess of Argyll, and Lord
Balmerino and some others, misguided the miserable
kingdom."
When Cromwell occupied Edinburgh in 1650 a
number of English foot were quartered at Holyrood ;
and on the I3th of November the greater part of the
palace was destroyed by fire, "whether by chance or
otherwise one day will reveal." In February 1652
the commissioners of the English parliament ordered
the royal arms to be removed from the building.
The custody of the house and park were conferred in
1657 on a certain Clay. In 1658 the council of state
advised that the late king's house, called " Hallirude
House," should be repaired at the public cost, and
the work was begun in that year. In September
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 125
1659 the front part of the palace had been built and
repaired ; in November the whole was said to be com-
pleted.
The commissioner of Charles II., the Earl of
Middleton, arrived at Holyrood on the last day of
1660. On New Year's day 1661 he rode the par-
liament ; and the estates were so richly clad in gold or
silver lace, silk, satin, and velvet, and gorgeous foot-
mantles, that they seemed rather princes than subjects.
All the nobles, barons, and gentry wore feathers and
bands on their hats, and were accompanied by liveried
lackeys and servants. The Earl of Glencairn, as
chancellor, rode first to the parliament house, and
was followed, in about an hour's time, by nobles,
gentry, and burgesses, who preceded the commissioner ;
by that official ; and by those who rode after him,
Lyon king at arms with his heralds and pursuivants,
Hamilton and Montrose, and Crawford, Sutherland,
and Mar, who bore the honours. The procession was
accompanied by trumpeters. That night at the
palace most of the nobility of the kingdom supped
with Middleton. He was served alone at a table, as a
prince, and received the cup from Athol, who knelt
and who tasted the drink before he tendered it. Here,
as elsewhere, there was a reaction against the rigorous
plainness of the Commonwealth.
On the 7th of January the body of Montrose was
carried from Boroughmuir where it had been igno-
miniously laid. It was wrapped in curious cloths and
placed in a coffin which was borne, under a canopy of
rich velvet, by the young Marquess of Montrose, and
by Athol, Mar, Seaforth, and other peers. Two
hundred gentlemen on horseback, the town of Edin-
burgh, and many thousands more provided an escort.
Colours flew, drums beat, trumpets sounded, muskets
126 ROYAL PALACES OF- SCOTLAND
cracked, and the cannon of the castle roared. At the
Tolbooth the head of the marquess was placed beside
the body, amid a great acclamation of joy. Thence
the company went to the chapel royal and there laid
the coffin in an aisle, pending further orders from king
and parliament. The remains of Hay of Dalgetty
were brought with those of Montrose.
The king's coronation in London was celebrated
in Edinburgh on the 23rd of April. Some hundred
and twenty lifeguardsmen, bravely mounted, their
carbines bound to their saddles, and their naked swords
in their hands, came as outriders from the parliament
house to the palace. The commissioner and nobles
followed in seventeen coaches, and at Holyrood par-
took of a feast.
A long procession bore the remains of Montrose
from the chapel royal to St. Giles's church on the
1 7th of May; the way was guarded on either side by
the towns of Edinburgh and the Canongate. The
lifeguardsmen rode first ; then came twenty-six young
boys, clad in long mourning garments, who carried
the arms of the dead man. The magistrates of Edin-
burgh followed in mourning habit, and then all
burgesses and barons who sat in parliament. Then
came a gentleman in bright armour, who was preceded
by a trumpeter in a new suit of the marquess's livery,
and who had beside him a led horse. Next eighteen
gentlemen carried on the points of staves long banners
of honour, or the marquess's gloves or spurs, or
parts of his armour. A led horse, covered with the
rich embroidered mantle in which Montrose and his
ancestors had ridden the parliament, followed, together
with a lackey who bore arms on his breast and back.
Then came the flower of the nobility in good order ;
and then all the heralds and pursuivants in coats of
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 127
arms, some with several honours in their hands. A
led horse, covered with black, followed, and after him
the Lyon king with the coat of arms. Then a number
of the marquess's friends, in mourning dress, carried
his parliament robe, a crown resting on a velvet
cushion and covered with crape, and other tokens.
The coffin was immediately preceded by six trumpeters,
playing, and was borne, under a rich pall, by lords
and noblemen. It was followed by many noble ladies
in mourning. The commissioner came behind them in
a coach covered with black and drawn by six horses all
clad in mourning. In the boot Lord Ramsay, bare-
headed, carried the commission. All the bells of
Edinburgh and the Canongate rang during the whole
time of the procession.
Behind it ten gentlemen, who carried long flags
and other honours on the ends of staves and who
were followed by two trumpeters playing, preceded
the coffin of Dalgetty which was borne by honourable
gentlemen "with many epitaphs and other painted
papers."
On the 7th of May 1662 the bishops were con-
secrated in the chapel royal, and care was taken to
admit to the ceremony none who had not a passport.
In this period music appears to have become
fashionable at Holyrood. The commissioner in 1662
arrived at the palace, for the holding of a parliament,
on the afternoon of the 4th of May ; and his dinner
on the next day was enlivened by five trumpets, five
viols, two base viols, and a kettledrum. The life-
guards were in attendance on horseback. On the 25th
of September 1663 the Earl of Rothes, as commis-
sioner, crowned Sir Charles Erskine Lyon king at
arms, in the chair of state at Holyrood and to the
sound of trumpets and kettledrums. The Lyon king
128 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
was richly dressed in purple velvet and a coat of arms,
and wore a gold chain about his neck ; and he duly
received the crown and baton. Heralds and pursui-
vants in coats of arms were present. After the cere-
mony the earl feasted all the company while music
was provided by " sundry sorts " of instruments.
In 1640 the hereditary keepership of Holyrood
Palace and of its yards, orchards, bowling greens, and
parks, with all attendant profits and the power to
appoint under-keepers, deputies, gardeners, and other
officers, was granted in tail male to James, Duke of
Hamilton. This grant and others to the heirs of the
duke were ratified by act of parliament in 1669, and
the Dukes of Hamilton are still hereditary keepers.
It appears that Cromwell's repairs of the palace were
inadequate, for what was practically a rebuilding was
begun in 1672. The design was that of Sir William
Bruce, surveyor general to the king, and incorporated
the west front erected by Cromwell. It was executed
by Robert Mylne, the king's master mason. An
Englishman who visited Scotland in 1699 stated that
the Scots anticipated that when their palace at Edin-
burgh had been completed the king would " leave his
rotten house at Whitehall and live splendidly amongst
his own countrymen."
The precincts of Holyrood had acquired the privi-
leges of sanctuary, and debtors frequently fled to them
in order to escape liability to arrest. This exemptness
from the scope of the law appears to have been conse-
quent on an act of 1593 which forbade the wounding
of persons in the king's palace or chamber when he
was present, and on the obvious inconvenience of
allowing in the king's residence the disturbance which
might accompany an arrest. In 1678 the council
decreed that debtors to the king in respect of excise,
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 129
customs, feu duties or other dues, should not enjoy
security at Holyrood.
The Duke of Monmouth arrived in Edinburgh,
on his mission to quell the rebels in the west, on the
1 8th of June 1679. He was very honourably enter-
tained and immediately received into the privy council.
He joined the army on the I9th and it is probable
that he slept at Holyrood on the previous night,
if indeed the building was in a state to afford him
shelter.
The works must have been essentially completed
when on the 25th of October 1680 the Duke and
Duchess of York were escorted from the water-gate to
the palace. Their way was guarded by two or three
thousand of the best citizens ; and in the outer court
of Holyrood they were received by several companies
of the king's guards. In the grand hall they were
met by the archbishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow
and other great ecclesiastics, and they received com-
pliments from the primate who spoke for the orthodox
clergy of the land. The lieutenant governor of the
castle then delivered his keys to the duke.
For the next eighteen months a court of much
stateliness was maintained at the palace. When allow-
ance has been made for the animus of Protestant wit-
nesses it appears to have been welcome to the majority
of the people, at least in its beginning. Five days
after the arrival the Bishop of Edinburgh and all the
clergy of the city and its neighbourhood came to the
palace in their canonical habits, and kissed the duke's
hand. The bishop, in the name of all the orthodox,
expressed satisfaction in the safe arrival of James and
assured him of prayers for the king and his line.
When the courts of justice met on the 2nd of
November, members of the college came to the palace
I
130 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
in a great company, clad in their gowns and ushered
by their macers, and they also kissed the duke's hand.
The lord president of the Court of Session then compli-
mented him on behalf of all the lawyers of the king-
dom. Thereafter James was saluted in like manner by
the lords commissioners of the king's justiciary, clad
in their scarlet gowns, and by members of their court
whose greeting was expressed by the lord justice clerk.
On the 1 7th of July 1681 the Lady Anne arrived
at the road of Leith and proceeded to Holyrood.
Nine days later John Leslie, Duke of Rothes, once
commissioner, died in the chancellor's lodging at the
palace. His body was carried to the High Church
and thence conveyed to the chapel royal in great
state and splendour. On the 23rd of August it was
taken to Leith on its way to burial at Leslie. The
parliament at which the Duke of York was commis-
sioner was ridden with much pomp and magnificence
on the 28th of July. The birthday of the duchess
was celebrated early in October, and that of the duke
on the 1 4th, when it is said that there were more
" solemnities and bonfires " than were used in honour
of the king.
The 1 5th of November was the birthday of the
queen and was observed by the court with great
festivities. Guns were fired and bonfires made. To
the scandal of the saints the Lady Anne and the maids
of honour, assisted by none, acted before the duke and
duchess and other company a comedy called " Mithri-
dates, King of Pontus." A Protestant chronicler
makes the comment that "the very heathen Roman
lawyers declared scenics and stage players infamous."
James sailed from Leith to England on the 6th
of March 1682, but left his wife and daughter in
Scotland and returned to them in May. The final
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 131
departure of the duke, the duchess, the Lady Anne,
and all their court and retinue was made on the i5th
of May.
In moving some seats the discovery was made, in
the following January, of the vault at the south-
eastern corner of the chapel in which were buried
James V. and Queen Magdalen, Jean Stewart, Countess
of Argyll, his natural daughter, and another variously
identified as Darnley and Riccio. The find excited
much interest.
The amusing set of portraits in the hall at Holy-
rood date from the year of the accession of James
VII. "In our gallery of the abbey," says a contem-
porary writer, " there is set up the pictures of our
one hundred and eleven kings since Fergus I., 330
before Christ, which make a very pretty show, and
the eminenter of them are done ad longum. They
have guessed at the figures of their faces before James I.
They got help by those pictures that were used at
Charles I.'s coronation in 1633, where they all met
and saluted him, wishing that is many of their race
might succeed him in the thrkie as had preceded
him."
In this reign Holyrood figures conspicuously, as
formerly in the time of Mary, as the place in which
the sovereign maintained the Roman Catholic worship.
The chancellor, the Earl of Perth, spent in 1685
£8000 on the purchase of altars, candlesticks, sacer-
dotal garments, and ornaments for the chapel royal.
On his return from England in December he brought
them with him, in spite of laws which permitted the
seizure of such articles by the customs officers. Next
year he established at Holyrood a private chapel at
which the mass was celebrated, and " which was not
kept so privately but that many frequented it."
132 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
There was a riot in consequence : the mob broke
into the chapel and defaced it to the extent of their
ability ; and Perth, who feared for his life, escaped in
disguise. The people were dispersed by the guards.
But the warning was not accepted by the government.
In August 1686, James wrote to the council that the
chapel royal had been established for the more decent
and secure exercise of Catholic rites in Edinburgh, and
that a number of chaplains and others had been
appointed to serve it, and were committed to the
especial protection of the councillors. Such was the
foundation of the " Jesuits' College" at Holyrood, an
object of bitter resentment. The chapel royal had
always served a double purpose ; it had been not
only the chapel of the kings, but also first the church
of the abbey, and afterwards the parish church of the
Canongate. At this time it was further occupied by
the " French minister's congregation," evidently a
Huguenot community. But in 1687 the latter were
ordered to worship in the High School or the common
hall, and the inhabitants of the Canongate were sent
to the Lady Tester kirk. The chapel royal was thus
devoted entirely to Roman Catholic services. It was
especially associated with the knights of the order of
the Thistle and St. Andrew, which James had revived.
In 1687 and 1688 a school was established in
connection with the chapel. In this boys were in-
structed gratis in Greek, Latin, poetry, rhetoric,
philosophy, and other subjects. The teaching was
professedly undenominational : pupils of either faith
were accepted, and the rules disavowed all purpose
of tampering with their belief or of obliging them
to take part in religious exercises. But it is evident
that the design was to create a rival, formidable
because it asked no fees, to those nurseries of Pro-
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 133
testant zealots, the High School and Edinburgh
College. The school hours were from a quarter to
eight until half-past ten, and from a quarter to two
until half-past four. The rest of the day was allotted
to home study.
The intensity of the feeling aroused by these
Catholic institutions was revealed in 1688. People
who walked in the park and in St. Anthony's
yards on Sunday the 9th of December were de-
barred from their usual short cut through the pre-
cincts of the palace by sentries, who challenged them
from closed gates, behind which they saw cannons
pointed and armed men drawn up in the courtyard.
Evidently those at Holyrood realised the danger of
their position ; and on the next day the Catholic
chancellor, Perth, left the palace with his family.
At twilight men were gathering in the street ; there
was a wild rumour afloat that parliament meant to
burn the town ; and certain had possessed themselves
of drums and beaten them in all quarters of the
city, to the alarm of the inhabitants. The usual
mob was reinforced by a detachment of boys,
students of the college and apprentices. Nothing,
however, occurred to employ their zeal for defence
against oppression ; they must have had the usual
reluctance to end flatly their demonstration, and
when it was suggested that they should go down
to Holyrood and burn the Popish chapel they seized
eagerly the outlet for their mood. They were armed
with staves and torches, and with their drums they
marched eastwards to the Canongate.
In the palace a Captain John Wallace was in
command of some hundred and twenty men raised
by the council. When he perceived the approaching
rabble he sent out a sergeant to warn them that if
134 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
they did not retire he would fire. They came on
notwithstanding, and presently a volley from within
the gates killed about a dozen and wounded others.
It was reported thereupon that the garrison of
the palace were butchering the inhabitants of Edin-
burgh. The matter had a seriousness which induced
some discontented gentlemen to join issue with the
rioters ; and Athol, Tarbet, and Breadalbane, on be-
half of the council, signed a warrant which summoned
Wallace, in the king's name, to surrender Holyrood.
A great company then marched down to the palace.
They were led by the trained bands of the town
under Captain Graham ; behind them came the gentle-
men ; and last the provost and magistrates in their
official robes, who headed a mob of several thousands.
Near the palace a halt was made, and heralds and
pursuivants were sent forward to deliver the warrant
to Wallace. On the ground that it had not proceeded
from a full quorum of the council he refused to obey
it. Firing began ; the magistrates and the gentlemen
sought cover, and the issue was left to the trained
bands and the mob and to the garrison. It was
decided by a stratagem of Graham, who with some
of his men contrived to enter the palace by a back
way. Wallace saw himself attacked from before and
behind, and conformed to the conventions of the
inglorious incident : he escaped. His men, when
they found themselves deserted, threw down their
arms and begged for quarter ; and by their defence-
lessness they revived the ardour of the gentlemen
and the rabble, who rushed in upon them, killed
some, and took captive others, of whom many died
in prison of wounds and hunger. The mob then
invaded the palace : they demolished, in so far as
they could, the private chapel ; they plundered the
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 135
house of the priests, destroyed their printing-press,
and rifled the school ; they brought out to the close
the timber-work, the books, and all else on which
they could lay hands, and made a bonfire. They
sought for the images, and found them at last in
an oven of which the opening was concealed by an old
cupboard. These they carried in procession through
the streets of the town and back to Holyrood, and
then they burnt them in the abbey close. They
entered the chapel royal, razed the new work which
had but just been completed, tore up the marble
pavement, and demolished all they could find. They
broke open the royal vault and seized the skulls
of Queen Magdalen and of Darnley. They rifled
the chancellor's lodging, and finally opened his cellar
and made themselves drunk with his wine. One
account states that only the goods they purloined
escaped the fire ; another that they burnt all and
carried off nothing. At all events they wrought
very great devastation.
For the next half century the history of Holyrood
was comparatively uneventful. In May 1689 the
committee of estates ordained that the park should,
until the nth of June, be kept for the use of the
household troops and the dragoons in the king's ser-
vice. On the 1 5th of April 1690 the high com-
missioner went from the palace to open parliament
at about eleven o'clock in the morning ; and was fol-
lowed by a splendid train of coaches, in which were
the nobility and gentry, and by the life-guards.
The ancient ceremony of riding the parliament had
thus been modified approximately to the present form
of the opening of the general assembly. In the
parliament of 1696 certain regulations were made,
under which debtors who found sanctuary at Holy-
136 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
rood could not escape bankruptcy. In 1705 we hear
of an interview at the palace between the Jacobite
agent, Colonel Hooke, and the Duke of Hamilton.
Two years later, when aversion from the Union was
most intense, this duke was huzzaed by the apprentices
and the populace as he passed from the parliament
house to Holyrood ; and the commissioner was greeted
by curses and reviling, and found it necessary to have
his coach closely surrounded by the horse-guards.
In all the history of Holyrood there is no episode
more romantic than that of the last court held there
by a Stewart, one of the race with whom it must
always be connected.
On the morning of the I7th of September 1745,
Charles Edward led his army towards Edinburgh, and
was met by vast crowds who convoyed him in triumph
to the palace, along the road which leads past St.
Anthony's well. The Duke of Perth rode on his
right and Lord Elcho on his left hand ; his company,
of whom almost all were in Highland dress, appeared
much jaded. An eye-witness describes him as a tall,
slender young man, some five feet ten inches in height,
high nosed and long visaged, with large rolling brown
eyes, and with red hair concealed at the time beneath
a light periwig. " He was in Highland habit, had
a blue sash, wrought with gold, that came over his
shoulder, red velvet breeches, a green velvet bonnet
with a white cockade and a gold lace about it ; being
in his boots I could not observe his legs ; he had
a silver-hiked broadsword." When he reached the
palace at about midday it seemed as though the whole
population of Edinburgh had assembled to greet him.
All joined in a loud huzza ; and he " discovered great
satisfaction," and smiled frequently. He was ob-
served to command great respect from his forces, and
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 137
frequently to address the O'Sullivan and Mr. Murray ;
and it is said that his speech was like that of an Irish-
man. He was accommodated in the lodging of the
Duke of Hamilton.
Two days later the prince set out to meet Cope,
and there ensued his victory of Prestonpans. It was
after this event that, for six weeks, the ancient splen-
dours of Holyrood were revived. Gentlemen of the
prince's army, those whom business brought to attend
him, and many others, were gathered together by duty,
affection, or curiosity. It was so long since there had
been a court in Scotland, that this one attracted people
from all parts of the country, and soon it was very
brilliant. It did not even lack a sham ambassador :
on the 1 4th of October " M. du Boyer, a French
person of quality, arrived at Holyrood House with
different despatches from the French court. He was
said to have a public character." " Everybody was
mightily taken with the prince's figure and personal
behaviour."' The court had the strange carelessness
which often characterises whatever has least elements
of permanence. " One would have thought the king
was already restored, and in peaceable possession of
all the dominion of his ancestors, and that the prince
had only made a trip to Scotland to show himself to
the people and receive their homage : such was the
splendour of the court, and such the satisfaction that
appeared in everybody's countenance." The prince
paid almost daily visits to the camp at Duddingston,
and sometimes spent the night there ; he could not
otherwise have kept the Highlanders together. He
left Holyrood on the evening of the 3ist of October ;
and an " infinite crowd " of people assembled to bid
him farewell, and grieved for his departure as much
as they had rejoiced in his coming. They were filled
** i
'••I *•
138 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
with foreboding, <c affected with the dangers " to which
they believed that the prince would be exposed.
On the 3Oth of January 1746, at three o'clock in
the morning, Cumberland arrived at the palace. He
had travelled from London in five days, and was
attended by Athol, the Earl of Albemarle and his son,
Lord Bury, Lord Cathcart, and other officers. In
spite of the hour and the unusual cold numbers of
people were in the streets to greet him, and he was
met by the ringing of bells. He slept in the room
occupied by Prince Charles, rose at eight o'clock, and
was then waited upon by soldiers and general officers,
who crowded to see him, and by such of the nobility
and lords of session as were present in Edinburgh.
At about one o'clock the presbytery of Edinburgh
and all the ministers who were in town came in pro-
cession to the palace and kissed his hand. They
were followed by the masters of the university, who
walked in gowns behind their mace. Thereafter the
duke walked into the close and inspected its sixteen
pieces of cannon, and as he passed through the gate
drums sounded and a loud huzza was raised. He
returned to the palace to dine, and was afterwards
engaged in a council of war. At nine on the follow-
ing morning he entered Lord Hopetoun's coach, and
then drove up the Canongate to join the troops.
Prince Frederick of Hesse came to Holyrood on
the 9th of February, and was saluted at his entry by
the guns of the castle. At midday he received con-
gratulations from the chief inhabitants of the town ;
and at night he was elegantly entertained by the lord
justice-clerk. During the month of his stay at the
palace much honour was paid to him, and several balls
and concerts, given in his honour, were distinguished
by " numerous appearances of nobility and gentry of
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 139
both sexes, elegantly attired." On the 1 8th of Feb-
ruary he met Cumberland at Leith pier : the whole
company proceeded in coaches to the palace, where
the two princes dined in public. Their conference
on military matters followed, and Cumberland returned
to the camp at nine on the next morning, and was
saluted at his departure, as he had been on his arrival,
by the castle guns. On the 2ist of February, the
eve of the birthday of his wife, the British princess
Mary, an entertainment of particular splendour was
provided for Prince Frederick. The Hessians defiled
to replace the English troops between the 23rd of
February and the 5th of March, and on the latter
date the prince, in a coach and in stately manner,
left Edinburgh.
On the night of the 2ist of July, Cumberland,
then on his way from Fort Augustus to London, again
slept at Holyrood.
In the late eighteenth century there was once
more the semblance of a court at the palace. The
Moniteur Universel of January 1796 contained a sar-
castic announcement that the King of England had
granted the "sad castle of Holyrood in Edinburgh"
to the comte d'Artois, who had resolved there to
await his triumphant return to France, since the place
had all the advantages of a sanctuary for debtors.
" Monsieur," afterwards Charles X., arrived at Leith
with his suite on the 6th of the month. He chose to
be received in a private manner, and drove quietly to
the rooms which had been prepared for him in haste.
On the following day and on the nth he held a
levee, and it was announced that he would see com-
pany on every Monday and Thursday. The royal
suite of apartments in the right wing of the quad-
rangle was made ready for him. Monsieur was joined
ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
by his sons, the dues d'Angouleme and de Berry,
of whom the former arrived on the 2ist of January.
In February he received at the palace a dozen royalist
French officers who brought news of affairs in Brittany.
This little court did much for several years to give
brilliance to Edinburgh society. There is particular
mention of the patronage by the due d'Angouleme
of performances at the Royal Theatre. That prince
left Scotland in September 1797, his brother in Sep-
tember 1798. Monsieur and his suite set out from
Holyrood for England on the 5th of August 1799.
Before his departure the count addressed a letter to
the provost and magistrates of Edinburgh : —
" GENTLEMEN, — Circumstances relative to the good
of the service of the king my brother, making
it requisite that I should leave this country, where,
during my residence, I have constantly received
the most distinguished marks of attention and regard,
I should reproach myself were I to depart with-
out expressing to its respective magistrates, and
through them to the inhabitants at large, the grateful
sense with which my heart is penetrated for the noble
manner in which they have seconded the generous
hospitality of his Britannic Majesty. I hope I shall
one day have it in my power to make known in
happier moments my feelings on this occasion, and
express to you more fully the sentiments with which
you have inspired me, the sincere assurance of which
time only permits me to offer you at present.
" (Signed) CHARLES PHILIP."
In 1822 Holyrood was visited by George IV., the
first reigning sovereign since Charles I. to come to
the palace. He arrived at about half-past one on the
1 5th of August, received the provost and the town
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 14 1
council, and left after several hours for Dalkeith,
where he was lodged. On the I9th he held at the
palace a court and closet levee, when certain ecclesias-
tical addresses were presented to him. A drawing-
room took place on the 2jrd in one of the rooms
lately occupied by the Bourbons. The occasion had
had no precedent since the seventeenth century ; and
the liveried attendants in the courtyard and quad-
rangle, the dragoons who kept clear the avenues of
the palace, and the archers who formed a guard of
honour in the corridors, were very impressive to the
citizens. The drawing-room was largely attended ;
" the gentlemen were mostly in military dresses ; but
the ladies looked to great advantage. They are in
general taller than the ladies of England, and their rich
plumes of ostrich feathers were exhibited with superior
effect. Dresses were mostly white satin, tastefully
ornamented with a profusion of llama." After this
visit the buildings of the palace were renovated.
There is no record that in " happier moments "
Charles X. manifested gratitude to Edinburgh. Instead
he had again to accept the hospitality of the city. In
July 1830 he was expelled from his kingdom; and in
October the British government granted to him the
use of all vacant apartments in Holyrood Palace. He
lived there with his suite under the title of comte
de Ponthieu ; and other rooms in the palace were
apportioned to his grandson, the due de Bordeaux
and comte de Chambord, who was afterwards known
to his adherents as Henry V., and who died in 1883.
He also was attended at Holyrood by a suite. The
deposed king of France was at this time more than
seventy years old, and had yielded himself entirely
to those religious exercises which occupied the end of
his life. He wore sackcloth next his skin, fasted and
1 42 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
prayed much, and frequently imposed on himself, as
a penance, the observance of a period of silence.
Holyrood must indeed have been a " sad palace "
while he lived in it, although it is said that he still
took pleasure in walks and sport, and that he often
received members of his order, like him exiled from
France. He left Holyrood with his family for
Gortz in Austria in 1834, and his death occurred
two years later.
In this period lodgings in the palace appertained
to the Duke of Hamilton as hereditary keeper, to the
Duke of Argyll as master of the household, to Lord
Breadalbane in virtue of a royal warrant granted in
1781, to Lady Strathmore, previously Lady Campbell
of Ardkinlass, by force of another warrant received
in 1815. Rooms had been in 1678 apportioned to
the deputy keeper, but were entirely given up to the
suite of the comte de Ponthieu. All these persons
probably lived in the palace from time to time.
Queen Victoria did not enter Holyrood in 1842,
when she came to Edinburgh for the first time. She
spent a night there in 1854; and in 1872 she stayed
with Prince Leopold and Princess Beatrice from the
1 4th to the 1 6th of August in a suite of rooms newly
decorated for her reception. In 1876 she was again
at Holyrood when she came to Edinburgh to unveil
the statue of the Prince Consort; and in 1886 when
she visited the International Exhibition.
King Edward held a drawing-room, which was
attended by many Scottish people, at the palace in
May 1903. He did not stay at Holyrood, but was
the guest of the Duke of Buccleuch at Dalkeith.
With such rare exceptions Holyrood has come to
be, except for a short period in every year, only a
place of beauty and of many historical associations.
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 143
Annually, however, in May, it assumes a ghostlike
semblance of its ancient state. The lord high com-
missioner resides in it, holds in it a very simple court,
and drives from it in procession up the Canongate
and the High Street to open the general assembly,
as once the kings set out to ride the parliament. He
holds a levee, to which the grave and ancient rooms
of the palace lend grace, although it is a sham levee,
which does not even confer such social privileges as
that of the lord lieutenant at Dublin.
Of the palace of the Jameses all that remains is
the south-west tower on one side of the entrance.
The early house is known, however, to have been built
round a quadrangle, and to have consisted, like the
present one, of two stories. Bruce placed at the
southern end of Cromwell's west front the other
tower which corresponds to the ancient one ; and he
modified and improved upon Cromwell's work. He
built the other three sides of the quadrangular court-
yard, which probably includes a greater area than that
of the fifteenth century.
The palace is a grey and rather sombre building,
which stands against the blue background of Arthur's
Seat and Salisbury Craigs, hills of singularly beautiful
outline. The sentry who guards the entrance paces
between the tower of James IV. and that which was
made by Bruce. He is in the pervading greyness
a very brilliant object. Within the western gates is
the courtyard, surrounded by a colonnade from which
both the modern part of the palace and the historical
rooms in the south-west tower are reached. A wind-
ing stone staircase of some breadth, which was inserted
by Sir William Bruce, leads to the rooms of Mary
Stewart, a chamber of audience, a bedroom and a
supper-room, and to those of Darnley. These rooms
144 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
were entirely altered by Charles I. On the flat timber
ceiling of the principal of them are the initials C. R.
and C. P., Charles King and Charles Prince ; and
those of James VII. and his wife, Mary of Modena,
J. R. and M. R. They occur among many heraldic
ornaments, the portcullis, the harp, the rose and thistle,
the lion salient, and a red cross, all crowned. The
windows of this room and the others in the tower
were enlarged by Bruce. There is no absolute proof
that the beautiful tapestry, the magnificent four- post
beds and the other furniture date from the days
of Mary.
In that part of the palace which was erected in the
seventeenth century the most interesting room is the
great gallery which extends on the first floor along the
whole length of the northern side of the quadrangle,
and as far as the outer east wall of the palace. It is
here that the elections of representative peers of Scot-
land take place. The purity of the race of the many
Scottish kings who are depicted along the walls
would seem to be proved by the strong likeness they
all bear to one another. Two portraits are of supe-
rior interest, those of James III. and his son and of
Margaret of Denmark and her daughter, both good
examples of Flemish art. There are, moreover, two
fragments of an ecclesiastical painting which represents
the Holy Family and has great merit.
The chapel royal, on the north-west side of the
palace, is a ruin. The choir and the transept have
gone ; the nave remains, with the west front and the
tower and an unglazed east window. No remedy of
the depredations of 1688 was attempted until 1757,
when a restoration was undertaken with so little
judgment that the walls were overweighted, and the
roof fell in ten years later. Thus the tombs in the
EDINBURGH CASTLE AND HOLYROOD 145
chapel lie bare to the sky, guarded only by walls and
by the beautiful tracery of the arches.
Since the building of the New Town of Edinburgh,
towards the end of the eighteenth century, the Canon-
gate, through which Holyrood is approached, has
become a picturesque street of slums. Until exempt
places were abolished in the nineteenth century, the
precincts of the palace remained an asylum for debtors.
In 1819 thiey enjoyed as such great popularity, and
houses within their limits were very highly rented. It
is this combination of circumstances which has made
Holyrood Palace unpopular as a residence of kings.
THE name of Stirling is modern ; even in the
eighteenth century it was used only as an
alternative for the older form. Strivelin
or Striveling Castle has a story which is
begun by ancient legends and continued through eight
centuries of Scottish history.
From the myths which contain the earliest evidence
as to the fortress two facts emerge : the first that of
its extreme antiquity ; the second, the most permanent
in its history, that of its military importance.
It was believed for long that the first strong place
on the site of the castle was one of the forts which
Agricola built to defend the isthmus between the
Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. But the
Romans were not wont to place their strongholds on
elevated places as were the mediaeval peoples of Europe.
The tradition is followed by others, yet more mythical
in origin, which connect King Arthur with Stirling
Castle. Then there is a fact which concerns its posi-
tion : Stirling stood in the sixth and seventh centuries at
or near the point at which the territories of the Picts,
the Scots, the kingdom of Strathclyde and that of
Northumbria converged ; in the two next centuries it
was at the junction of the boundaries of Scotland,
Strathclyde, and Northumbria ; and there is credibility
in Boece's tale that a great stone cross stood upon
Stirling bridge to mark the place where met the
marches of three kings. Boece cites his legend of
146
STIRLING CASTLE 147
the cross in order to account for the common seal
used by the burghers of Stirling from the thirteenth
century. It bears a cross which has on one side of it
spearmen who aim at bowmen shooting back at them
from its other side ; and on the seal is the motto,
" Hie armis Bruti Scoti stant, hie cruce tuti." Stirling
was held to separate the Christian Lowland men from
the"Hieland Brutes."
Its significance underwent little change. Down to
the 'Forty-five the castle stood between the High-
lands and the Lowlands ; it was the place which bound
the Highlander.
It is unlikely that there was not a stronghold on
the castle rock in the period which intervenes between
the Roman occupation and that of the attested history
of Scotland. The rock, apart from its position with
regard to the kingdoms, commands the Forth where
that river is easily crossed, and, together with Dum-
barton, the line of country between the Forth and the
Clyde. The possession of a fort on it may easily
have been the prize of many contests between the
neighbouring peoples.
It is as a border fortress that there is first certain
knowledge of Stirling Castle. It was held by Alex-
ander L, son to Malcolm Canmore and Margaret,
who ruled from 1 107 to 1124 over Scotland north of
the Forth and the Clyde. South of these rivers his
brother and successor, David, was king. Alexander
made and endowed the chapel of Stirling Castle ; this
house and Dunfermline were probably his chief resi-
dences since he had no part in Edinburgh, and Stirling
was the place of his death. The foundation of the
chapel was confirmed by David I.
Stirling Castle was in 1174 one of | the four fort-
resses yielded to Henry II. as the ransom of William
148 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
the Lion, and was with the others bought back from
Richard I. William is said to have established there
a mint. The monkish chronicler of Pluscarden, who
wrote some three centuries later, recounts a tale of a
general council held at Stirling by this king in his old
age, when he had just recovered from a sickness, and
was in enjoyment of a short respite from the war with
England. He sent nobles from Stirling as ambassadors
to King John in order to establish peace ; and John,
when he heard their instructions, "raged like a mad-
man." This may record an event in the negotiations
between John and William as to the latter's claims on
Northumberland. In 1214, on the 4th of December,
William died at Stirling Castle. The end of his reign
was troubled by insurrections in the eastern Highlands,
and the chroniclers relate that, after he had in Moray
secured a degree of order, he travelled southwards to
Stirling in great bodily weakness and by slow stages.
He lingered for some days at the castle, losing strength
every day, and then died piously, a man seventy-three
years old, who had reigned for almost half a century.
Before his death he procured the adhesion of the
bishops, earls, and barons to the succession of his son
Alexander. He, as Alexander II., was at Stirling
with the queen mother at Epiphany of next year. In
1244 the town was entirely consumed by a fire, but
any damage suffered by the castle does not appear.
In 1257 Stirling Castle was the scene of such an
episode as was often enacted in Scottish history. Since
their capture of Edinburgh Castle the party of Alan
Durward had been ascendant in the kingdom. Now
Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith, with Alexander
Comyn, Earl of Buchan, and their supporters seized at
Kinross, at midnight on the feast of St. Simon and St.
Jude, the sixteen-year-old king, Alexander III., and
the great seal, and carried both to Stirling Castle.
STIRLING CASTLE 149
This effective method of securing governing power
may almost be said to have become eventually part of
constitutional practice in Scotland. There is evidence
that the king was also at the castle voluntarily and in
the time of his majority, and took pleasure in it.
Between 1264 and 1266 the sum of ,£80, i6s. jd. was
spent on the completion of the new park and the repair
of the old. In 1278 or 1280 the castle was the place
of the death of David, the king's younger son, who
was buried at Dunfermline.
When, at his death in 1286, Alexander III. left no
direct heir to the throne but the little Maid of Norway,
much importance attached to the report that the queen
Yoletta was with child. The Lanercost chronicler
accuses her of having originated the rumour in order
to acquire favour and possessions, but it may be that
she herself was deceived. Until the 2nd of February,
for nearly a year after her husband's death, she re-
mained in Stirling Castle. She caused a new font to be
made of white marble for the baptism of her child, and
the people prepared to rejoice. But on the feast of the
Purification she was seized in the gateway of the castle
by William of Buchan, and the expectation of another
heir to the crown was confounded. Yoletta became
an object of hatred, and she who had been welcomed
from overseas with many gifts, left Scotland in shame.
Between 1288 and 1290, in the years of the inter-
regnum, fuel was provided for the castle, wages were
paid to two parkers and a hunter of foxes, to parkers
who made a new paling, and to the keeper of the new
park, and the porter. The payment of j£iO2, 35. 2d.
to masons, stone-breakers, smiths, and other workmen
employed in building works at the castle probably
indicates that it was placed in a state of defence, and
foreshadows the important part which it played in the
War of Independence.
150 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
In 1291, the Guardians of Scotland delivered all
castles of the kingdom to Edward I. He placed at
Stirling an English castellan, Norman Darcy, to whom
payments were made in this year for the provisioning
of the castle and otherwise, but who also received a
fee from the chamberlain of Scotland, and in 1292
from him and from the sheriff of Stirling. This
keeper, if he still held office at the date of the revolt
from Edward's authority in 1294, did not retain the
castle for the English king. In June 1296, however,
Edward marched from Linlithgow to Stirling, and the
chronicler of Lanercost relates that he cast such fear
before him that he found a deserted fortress, of which
the keys hung over an open door. There were left
some prisoners, who implored the king's mercy and
were set free. Edward remained for five days, and was
again at Stirling on the I4th and I5th of August. He
made Sir Richard de Waldegrave constable in his inte-
rest. Next year occurred Wallace's victory at Stirling
Bridge. A great part of the garrison and the constable
were slain in the fight ; but Warenne, the English
commander, sent a force under William de Ros, Sir
William FitzWaryn, and Sir Marmaduke de Thweng
to throw themselves into the castle, and they succeeded
in occupying it. Warenne promised to relieve them
within ten weeks, and he wrote to England to beg a
ratification of his appointment of William FitzWaryn as
constable in place of Waldegrave. That office was how-
ever filled by John Sampson in August 1298. After his
victory at Falkirk King Edward came to Stirling in
July 1298 ; and it was probably during his visit that
the keeper of his wardrobe delivered to John Sampson,
for the service of the chapel of the castle, a silver
chalice, a vestment, two towels, a missal, a portoise,
certain antiphones and tropes, and two cruets of pewter.
STIRLING CASTLE 151
In December the castle was victualled : the business
was entrusted to a certain clerk, Sir Alexander Con-
vers, who was ordered not to leave Scotland until it
was done.
Its garrison, commanded by John Sampson, con-
sisted of some ninety persons, combatant and non-
combatant, who included Sir Thomas de Bruddenhale,
chaplain and groom ; John de Cave, clerk and groom ;
Ralph de Kirkeby, clerk ; Master John the engineer, and
four companions ; John the smith and groom ; Richard
the mason and two companions ; two janitors and a
boy ; and William of Lanark, the single one of them
to bear a Scottish name. These persons were besieged
by the Scots in 1299, and were reduced to the necessity
of eating a bay horse, a ferrant horse, and a mare
" for default of other food." During a period of
truce, however, they bought hay for their horses, beef,
mutton, milk, butter, cheese, flour, and fish. They
surrendered at the end of the year to the Scots under
Gilbert Malerbe ; and John Sampson recovered from
the English government the value of certain linen
sheets cut and uncut, gold buckles and rings, silk
purses, silver spoons, a gentleman's bed, and other
articles, which he lost, presumably to pillagers.
Thus the Scots acquired this important fortress,
the gateway of the Highlands ; and they gave its
command to William Oliphant, " a knight of a great
spirit." It was in the spring of 1304 the only strong
place which had not surrendered to the English, and
on the Sunday after Easter King Edward brought
his army to besiege it. A brilliant company of men
at arms gathered around the castle rock : there were
the Earls of Warenne, Nicole, Gloucester, Lancaster,
Warwick, and Worcester ; John de Bretagne, Aymer
de Valence, Henry de Percy, and Hugh le Despenser,
152 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
with all their followers, and many others ; and they
were watched from the castle by two knights, Sir
William Oliphant and Sir William of Dupplin, twenty
men of honour, without page or porter, a friar preacher,
a " monk counsellor," thirteen maidens and ladies, and
no others of distinction. Matthew of Westminster
states that Oliphant, when he saw the chivalry of the
English king, sent to him to crave passage for an
embassy to France, which should ask for how long
it were well to withstand a siege. But Edward re-
plied that the constable must himself decide this
matter. Yet the enterprise of the English king
was protracted and difficult. Already in March he
had ordered the Bishop of Chester to send for the
siege money and stones ; in April he had directed
the lead to be stripped from the roofs of the churches
of Perth and Dunblane for the engines, of which
he brought with him thirteen, one of them a <c hideous
engine" called Ludgare, and another, the "great
engine of Inverkip." One or more engines were used
by the besieged. In June Edward commanded that
a vessel should carry with all haste to Stirling beans
and oats for his horses, which had only grass to
eat ; that all his stores from Berwick should be sent
to him to this destitute country; that the sheriff of
York should furnish him with a reinforcement of forty
crossbowmen and forty carpenters. In July he wrote
for five hundred quarrels and " a tour, nerfs, peel,
engleu," and other necessaries for crossbows. To
construct engines all the lead was taken from the
roof of the monastery of St. Andrews. At last in
September, after a siege which had lasted all through
the summer, Oliphant and twenty-five men, probably
all the remnant of the garrison, yielded on conditions
written and subscribed. But Edward broke the word
STIRLING CASTLE 153
he had plighted ; he sent the brave constable to the
Tower of London and other Scottish prisoners to
Launceston. William Bisset was appointed constable
and sheriff of the county.
The humiliation of Scotland was marked by the
exposure at Stirling in 1305 of one quarter of the
body of Sir William Wallace.
Succeeding notices of the castle concern its pro-
visioning with flour, wine, cod-fish, salt, and other
victuals. The constabulary was held in 1310 by
Ebulo de Montibus, in 1312 by the " douchty " Sir
Philip Mowbray, a Scot whose politics were English.
In that year the bailiff of Holdernesse and the sheriffs
of eight English counties sent corn, bacon, and other
stores for the munition of the castle. From Lent to
midsummer 1314 Edward Bruce besieged this strong-
hold, then so impregnable, ubot gret chevelry done
wes nane." At last Mowbray agreed to surrender if
he were not relieved within a year : it is said that
King Robert was displeased with his brother for grant-
ing so long a reprieve. But the English forces
assembled before St. John's day : <c Immense was the
army which Edward brought together for the relief
of Stirling Castle, and the choicest he could muster
of all the races, whether his subjects or his allies, with
which he had to do. In number of troups and their
equipment we read of the like nowhere in Britain."
Bannockburn followed and gave back Stirling Castle
to the Scots.
The castle rock was after the battle black with
fugitives from the English army. King Robert sent
a company to attack them and probably there was
much slaughter. He remained for some time in
Stirling and superintended the honourable burial in
holy places of the great lords slain in action, and the
154 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
interment in pits of the undistinguished dead. He
caused also " the castle and the towers " to be levelled
with the ground.
This can signify only that the castle ceased to be a
place of strength, for it was still a royal residence ; a
kitchen for the king was constructed in it in 1328.
Its keepership belonged to the sheriff of Stirling.
That it was indefensible is confirmed by the cir-
cumstance that in 1335 it was held by Edward III.,
who had apparently peaceably taken possession of it.
He however caused it to be restored as a fortress and
placed in it a garrison. At Ascensiontide 1336 it was
besieged by the Scots, but Edward III. advanced by
forced marches to its relief, and the siege was aban-
doned at the news of his approach. The garrison in
1337 was commanded by Sir Thomas de Rokeby and
was of formidable strength : it consisted of three
knights, eighty esquires, a clerk of victuals, twenty-
two watchmen and eighty archers ; and certain masons,
sawyers, carpenters, and thatchers were employed by
the constable. It yielded to the siege of Robert
Stewart, the Guardian, in April 1342, when Rokeby
had been brought to despair of relief by news of the
war in France, when his men had been reduced by
nearly a third, and his supply of food had run short.
He agreed to a surrender without bloodshed.
Here ends the most stirring time in the history of
Stirling Castle. The warden appointed by Robert
Stewart was Maurice de Moray, lord of Clydesdale.
In 1364 and afterwards Sir Robert Erskine, member
of a family to be much connected with this house, was
keeper. The castle was visited in 1368 by the queen
of David II., Margaret Logic ; and in the same year
the king sent the chamberlain and four knights to
inspect the garrison, the walls, the victualling, and
STIRLING CASTLE 155
further warlike necessaries of this and other strong-
holds. The keepership had passed in 1373 to Robert,
Earl of Fife, afterwards Duke of Albany, who held
the office until his death. Robert II. was sometimes
in Stirling Castle ; carpets and a mattress were provided
in 1380 for his chamber. In 1384 and afterwards
payment was made to a keeper of arms in the castle.
Richard II. during his invasion of Scotland in 1385
failed to make an impression on this fortress. From
1361 to the end of the century, money was spent on
building works and repairs. In 1381 there is record of
the construction of the ante-mural and western door
of the castle, in 1390 of the tower called Wai.
In 1359 the chapel of the castle is first described
as dedicated to St. Michael. Its priest was then in
receipt of 503. annually.
The castle in the reign of James I. is associated
chiefly with the pitiless repressive policy of that king.
It appears often to have been the residence of the
regent Albany : he died there in 1420 and was carried
to Dunfermline for burial. His son Duke Murdoch,
Murdoch's sons Alexander Stewart, whom the king
had knighted in the previous year, and Walter, and
Murdoch's father-in-law, Donald, Earl of Lennox,
were in May 1425 beheaded before the castle with
which they must have been very familiar. Their
sentence was passed in a parliament which met in the
borough. In 1431 James arrested another kinsman,
his nephew John Kennedy, and imprisoned him in the
castle. In 1437 the king's murderer, Robert Graham,
was led captive to Stirling, and there, probably in the
place where Lennox and the Stewarts had died, he was
after revolting torture put to death. It is likely that
in Stirling of all places in Scotland there were some
who sympathised with the view advanced in the speech
156 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
Graham made to his judges, the view which history
has disproved : " Oh ye all so sinful, wretched and
merciless Scottish folk, without prudence and full
replete of unavised folly ... yet doubt I not that
ye shall see the day and the time that ye shall pray
for my saul for the great good that I have done to
you and to all this reaume of Scotland, that I have
thus slain and delivered you of so cruel a tyrant, the
greatest enemy the Scots or Scotland might have . . .
without pity or mercy to sib or to freme, to high or to
lawe, to poor or to rich."
Both in the time of the captivity of James I. and
in the years of his rule frequent payments were made
for repairs and building executed at Stirling Castle.
In 1406 a wooden mill was built in its precincts; in
1420 the well was cleansed and repaired; the stables
were mended and the dwellings roofed in 1434; in
that year Baltic timber was supplied for the castle, and
in the next planks of Prussia. In 1434 two houses in
the town were hired for the king's cattle. The ser-
vants at the castle who received wages were a jani-
tor, three watchmen, a granitarius who presumably
kept the grain, an officer who had charge of the
houses and keys, the king's vases and other necessaries,
a sentinel, and a keeper of the pond.
After the death of James I., Stirling Castle was
held by the widowed queen Jane : it had probably
been assigned to her as a dower-house. The tale
which narrates her abduction of the child James II.
from Edinburgh Castle states further that at Stirling
the governor of the castle, Sir Alexander Livingstone,
came with all his forces joyfully to receive the king,
and that he esteemed the queen greatly for her daring
and success. It is certain that James was at Stirling in
1439 ; and that any affection felt by Livingstone for
STIRLING CASTLE 157
Queen Jane had by that time suffered diminution.
She had, probably to secure a protector, married Sir
James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lome. It is
likely that Livingstone resented her authority with
regard to her son ; at all events, on the 3rd of August,
he made her a prisoner within her chamber in the castle,
and kept her there until she was released by the action
of a council at the end of the month. A mysterious
statement, seemingly of horrid import, is that he also
placed her husband and his brother William " in pitts
and bollit thai." In September, however, Jane with
the sanction of parliament was reconciled to Living-
stone. She remitted the grief and displeasure conse-
quent on the restrictions placed on her liberty; she
acknowledged her confinement to have been wrought
of the great truth and lealty of Alexander and his sup-
porters ; she gave to his keeping the king while a
minor, and lent to him for a residence during such
period her castle of Stirling ; and she assigned 4000
marks for the king's upkeep in the castle. In return
she received free access to her son, but Alexander
reserved certain rights over those who should visit him
in her company.
But these elaborate arrangements were shortlived.
On a " mirk nicht " Crichton with a hundred friends
stole into the park of Stirling ; and when, by good
luck, James with a small company of horsemen rode
out to hunt at break of day, he suddenly found him-
self surrounded by unknown men. They saluted him
with respectful humility ; and then Crichton requested
him to be so good as to deliver himself from the
prison in which he was wickedly detained and to pass
to Edinburgh or any other part of Scotland. Crichton
and his men offered themselves as a convoy to guard
him from all who would not let a prince live freely.
158 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
The little king's fancy was pleased ; he smiled and they
understood that he was glad to go with them ; and
then they took his horse by the bridle and rode off
with him towards Edinburgh. Some of his servants
would have interfered, but they were restrained by
Alexander Livingstone, eldest son of the governor,
who told them the king was in no danger, and that it
was vain to oppose so many armed men.
In February 1449, when the Douglases were high
in the king's favour, there was a jousting in the barres
at Stirling. In the king's presence James, Master of
Douglas, James Douglas, brother to the laird of
Lochleven, and the laird of Halkett met two knights
of Burgundy, Sirs Jacques and Simon de Lalane, and
the lord of Longueville, who was their squire.
The castle was a part of the dower assigned by
James to his queen, Mary of Gueldres. In May 1450 a
child who lived only for six hours was there born to her.
In this year old Alexander Livingstone was at-
tainted, and the keepership of Stirling Castle passed
into the tenure of his rival Crichton. It had, presum-
ably by Alexander's act of delegation, been held for
some years by his son James. According to Pitscottie,
it was at Stirling Castle that in 1451 William, Earl of
Douglas, who had been temporarily estranged from
James, came to the court and placed himself and all
he had in the king's hands, desiring only pardon for
his faults and leave to be " bot as the soberest courtier
in his grace's company." He received back his lands,
" and all good Scotsmen were very blithe at the accord-
ance."
But on the 22nd of February 1452, the second
Douglas tragedy of the reign took place at Stirling
Castle. There was a rumour that a bond existed
between the Earl of Douglas and the Earls of Craw-
STIRLING CASTLE 159
ford and Ross. James sent by William Lauder of
Haltoun a special safe-conduct to the Douglas, signed
by his own hand and under his privy seal, and attested
by all the lords who were at Stirling Castle with him,
and who had sworn to hinder the king from breaking
faith. Thus guarded Douglas obeyed the royal behest
and arrived at Stirling on the 2ist of February. He
went at once into the king's presence, who "took
right weel with him be appearance," and invited him
to dinner and supper on the morrow. The earl
came accordingly ; and at seven o'clock in the evening,
after supper, as he was in an inner chamber with the
king, James taxed him with the existence of the bond
and charged him to break it. Douglas answered that
he might not and would not comply ; and the king
was overcome by anger, apparently unpremeditated.
He said, " ' False traitor, sence you will not I sail/
And stert sodanly to him with ane knife and straik
him in at the collar and down in the body. And they
said that Patrick Gray strak him next the king with
ane pole-axe on the head and strak out his brains.
And syne the gentillis that war with the king gaf them
ilk ane a straik or twa with knife.'* They who partici-
pated in the butchery were Sir Alexander Boyd, Lord
Darnley, Sir Andrew Stewart, Sir William of Grahams-
town, Sir Simon Glendinning, and Lord Gray.
On St. Patrick's day the dead man's brother,
Douglas, Earl of Ormond, together with Lord Hamil-
ton and some six hundred men, came to Stirling. They
blew the horn twenty-four times to denounce the king
and all that were with him ; and then they showed the
king's signed letter that was hung with the seals of
all the lords, and fixed it to a board which was tied
to a horse's tail and shamefully dragged through the
mud of the town. They made a show of their con-
i6o ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
tempt for the king, speaking " right slanderously " of
him ; and finally, in consummation of their wrath,
they burnt and spoiled the borough. The king had
already left the castle for Perth ; in June he was
exonerated for the murder by a parliament.
Throughout the reign of James II. there are many
references to building at the castle. In 1447 one
hundred panes of glass were provided for the windows
of the king's chamber, and in 1459 four hundred
panes for the fabric in general. In 1458 the kitchen,
the small larder, the brewery, the bakery, and the new
brewery were repaired ; the kitchen was paved ; and
four windows were made in the hall and the queen's
chamber. There is mention in 1453 of the boys of
the king's chapel at Stirling.
It seems that the queen mother was much at
Stirling Castle during the minority of James III.
His brother Mar and his sisters, the ladies Mary
and Margaret, were there also in 1463. On the
king's marriage to Margaret of Denmark in 1469
the house was assigned to her as part of her dower.
Of this king it is said that he took such pleasure in
dwelling at Stirling that he neglected for it all other
castles and towns in Scotland. There are full records
in the treasurer's accounts of a time he spent there
in the early summer of 1475. Entries concern
;£6, IDS. which he lost when he played "at the
catch," 363. expended on his balls, the wages of John
Bate who brought him a hawk, of the wife who kept
his hawks, and 148., the price of a pair of gloves.
Further sums were paid to the wife Goldee who sup-
plied him with whey, to a man who brought him a
bear, to two women who sang to him.
After the stay at Holyrood which followed his
release from Edinburgh Castle, James with Albany,
STIRLING CASTLE 161
and with the Duke of Gloucester who had with him
2000 horse and 500 foot in the pay of the English
king, went to Stirling. Thence he visited other parts
of Scotland, but Stirling Castle appears to have been
his headquarters for the rest of the year.
Margaret, the queen, was keeper of the castle after
1481 ; and she was there in 1484 and in 1485, perhaps
continuously. In 1486 it was the place of her death.
Prince James, who had probably been with his mother,
was at Stirling during the remaining years of his
father's reign.
In 1469 the king had converted the chapel royal
of his favourite castle into a collegiate church, dedi-
cated to St. Mary and St. Michael : it is said that he
instituted in it an unusually large number of prebends
in order that some canons might always accompany
him, to sing and to play, while others served the
chapel. This did not affect the old foundation ; for
the earlier beneficiary, as had for some time been the
case, still received ten marks a year. James now
attempted to add to the endowment of the college
the priory of Coldingham, and by this action he
aroused the enmity of the Homes and the Hepburns :
the south of Scotland armed against him and he
collected the loyal forces.
He went to Stirling Castle, victualled it, and
appointed to its command James Shaw of Sauchie.
To him he entrusted also his eldest son, and charged
him, as he loved his honour and his life, to let none,
great or small, enter the castle, and on no account
to suffer the prince to leave it, either to play any
game or to meet any man.
Certain of the rebel lords, Angus, Annandale,
Bothwell, and Home, sent to Shaw to come and speak
with them for his weal and profit ; and with fair
Xs
..-'•>£
f -, >/—-*••
'•; V
1 62 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
promises and gifts of gold and silver they were able
to buy his faith. He retained his keepership of the
castle in their name and that of the prince, swore that
he would not receive into it the king, and delivered
the prince into their hands.
Thereafter the king came to Stirling to meet his
army, and when he arrived " incontinent " at the
castle he was denied entrance. Then he desired to
speak to his son, and was told by Shaw that the prince
did not wish to see him. He asked gently where the
prince was, and when he heard the fact, he denounced
the treachery of the keeper, and swore, if he lived, to
reward it. He slept that night in the town, and
passed next day to his death in battle.
The most important part of the fabric of Stirling
Castle assigned to the reign of James III. is the par-
liament house with its fine hall. This, like Linlithgow
Palace, has been ascribed to the architecture of the
favourite Cochrane. In 1461 the chambers of the
king and queen and the hall of the wardrobe were
repaired, and two years later a door was made in the
White Tower. The roof of the chapel was mended,
and in 1469 two hundred boards from the Baltic and
two hundred square stones for pavement and ornament
were delivered to the master of the fabric of the
chapel. There is first mention in this reign of a
gardener at the castle : he received 2Os. a year and an
allowance of meal.
After the surrender to him of Edinburgh Castle,
James IV. passed to Stirling and was at once received
into the castle. He remained there for a while, and
went daily to the chapel royal to hear mass and
evensong ; and the priests prayed for his welfare and
for the soul of his father. It is related that thus
he was brought to repent of his part in his father's
STIRLING CASTLE 163
death and went to ask counsel of the dean of the
chapel, a godly man ; less rash, however, than he was
devout, since for dread of the lords he did not speak
his mind to the young king, but gave only ghostly
counsel. James continued sad, and at last sought
relief in an act of repentance : he caused an iron
belt to be made, which he wore daily for the rest
of his life, and every year an ounce was added to its
weight.
In January 1489 there occurred a royal grant to the
traitor, James Shaw of Sauchie, and John his son, for
the lifetime of the survivor of them, of the custody
of the castle of Stirling and its houses, bounds, and
fortalices, with liberty to make stables, and with all
profits and fees which had belonged to the queen
of James III. in the time of her keepership. This
appointment must be ascribed to the action of the
lords who had rebelled against the dead king, and
it was soon cancelled. A year later Alexander Hume
was made keeper for nine years, and to him was
Siven also the charge of the king's younger brother,
ohn, Earl of Mar, whose early education was
received in the castle. In April 1490 this prince
was said to have reached an age at which he might
derive profit from " schools and doctrines " ; and to
provide for his instruction the lands of Mar and
Garioch, to which his dignity gave him a right, were
assigned, while full powers of management over them
were entrusted to Alexander Hume.
In 1489 certain Danes were entertained by the
king at Stirling : probably a Danish ship was in the
Forth. In October Carrick pursuivant was charged
to convey a French herald from Stirling to Edin-
burgh. But a much more important foreign visitor
was received in November 1495, Prince Richard of
1 64 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
England or Perkin Warbeck, for whom James IV.
adopted the cause of the white rose.
Early in the month arras, the " cupboard " and
the ornaments of the chapel were carried from Edin-
burgh to Stirling for the reception of the " English
prince." On his coming the hospitality accorded to
him included the replenishing of the wardrobes of
himself and his servants. There were provided for
him black hose of cloth of Lille trimmed with purple
damask ; a " hogtoun " of white and purple damask
to be worn at a tournament, and " arming " hose,
probably for the same occasion, which were made of
white kersey. His marriage with Lady Katherine
Gordon had already been arranged, and fourteen ells
of white damask were bought to fashion his wedding
gown, as well as black cloth of Lille for his hose, and
seven ells of velvet to make a greatcoat, with sleeves
" of the new fashion," lined with damask. Six of his
servants received each of them a " hogtoun " of tartan
adorned with broad ribbons, and a gown of damask ;
for two trumpets gowns of rowan tan, doublets of
chamlet, and hose of red kersey were provided ; and
for Laurence, the armourer, a gown of rowan tan, a
doublet of velvet, hose of black cloth of Lille, and a
brown " hogtoun " of the same material.
Such would appear to have been Perkin's train,
who, with their master and the Scottish king, were
again at Stirling at Easter 1496.
There are other indications in the history of the
castle of the complicated foreign policy of James IV.
There was talk of a Spanish match for the king ;
and in April 1497 certain ambassadors of Spain were
entertained at Stirling during ten days. The Arch-
bishop of Glasgow had been sent to Spain to treat
concerning the matter; in August his man brought
STIRLING CASTLE 165
letters from the Spaniards to the king at Stirling. In
July 1498 Perkin's cause was already lost, and an
ambassador of Henry VII. was received by King
James at Stirling. A peace between the two kings
was there concluded in July of next year.
From about this time until the date of his marriage,
the mistresses of the king often lived at this castle.
Janet Kennedy, Lady Bothwell, appears to have been
there continuously from 1499 until December 1502.
In 1500 a son, named James and created Earl of
Moray, was born to her ; and two years later occur
references to the two women who had charge of this
child at Stirling, to a pair of shoes, a coat of French
brown, and a verdure bed, presumably one of which
the tapestry depicted a woodland scene, which were
bought for him, and to the mantle and wool bed
supplied to his nurse. He would seem to have had
brothers or sisters, for scarlet of England was pro-
vided to make coats for "the bairns." His mother
received at Stirling black cloth of Lille, velvet, damask
to line her cloak, Holland cloth, a hat, and two ells of
strip of gold, as well as such articles of domestic use
as two ticks of feather beds and six stone of feathers,
pots, a kettle, four pans, a tin quart and a pint stoup,
four candlesticks, a verdure bed, twenty-six ells of
white for blankets, and three cushions sewed and lined.
In June 1503 a nurse brought the king's daughter by
Margaret Drummond from Drummond Castle to
Stirling.
Stirling Castle and shire had been assigned to
Queen Margaret Tudor as part of her dower ; and
already, on the 3Oth of May 1503, the king in person
had within the castle delivered possession thereof to
Lord Dacre and another who were Margaret's attor-
neys. The "bairns," when in July 1504 the king
1 66 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
and queen came to the castle, were transferred to
lodgings in the town ; and in September they were
taken to St. Andrews.
Some letters written by the English agent Nicholas
West to his government in March 1513 give an account
of interviews with the king at Stirling Castle. West
in the traverse, a seat enclosed by lattice-work, treated
with a distracted king, from whom it was difficult
to obtain definite statements, a fey man, who made
visionary talk of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem ; and when
urged to abandon his alliance with France showed
"four sheets of paper sewed together, and signed at
the end with the French king's hand, and sealed with
his signet." " Now you see," he said, "wherefore
I favour the French king, and wherefore I am loth
to lose him ; for if I do I shall be never able to per-
form my journey." West was received on Monday
the 28th; on Wednesday, in the morning, when he
came to the court unasked because he saw they began
" to trifle him forth " ; on Wednesday afternoon,
when his "importunate labour" caused the king to
withdraw into a closet with only himself and the
secretary ; and on Friday in the presence of the lords.
He wrote the unsatisfactory result of his diplomacy
to his master, and added : " I had liever your Grace
had commanded me to tarry so long in Turkey, this
country is so miserable, and the people so ungracious ;
and over that I shall have scant money to bring me
home, the country is so dear."
This view, however, was clearly prejudiced. The
history of Stirling Castle, as of other Scottish palaces,
contradicts it with much evidence of the culture and
liberality of the country and court of the king to
whom Dunbar wrote —
STIRLING CASTLE 167
" Schir ye have mony servitoris
And officiaris of dyvers curis ;
Kirkmen, courtmen and craftismen fyne ;
Doctours in jure and medicyne ;
Divinouris, rethoris, and philosophouris,
Astrologis, artistis, and oratouris ;
Men of armes, and vailyeand knychtis,
And mony uther gudlie wichtis ;
Musicianis, menstralis, and mirrie singaris,
Chevalouris, callendaris and flingaris ;
Cunzouris (coiners), carvouris and carpentaris,
Beilderis of barkis, and ballingaris ;
Masounis lyand upon the land,
And schip wrichtis hewand upone the strand,
Glasing wrichtis, goldsmythis and lapidaris,
Pryntouris, payntouris and potingaries (apothecaries),
And all of their craft cunning."
He balances the list with another of less reputable
followers of the court —
" Monsouris of France, gud claret cunnaris (connoisseurs),
Inopportune askaris of Yrland kynd,"
and numerous others.
There are many records which bear testimony to
revels of the court held at Stirling Castle. It was
customary in all great houses, and also in boroughs,
to appoint yearly an Abbot of Unreason, who held
sway from Christmastide until Candlemas. In 1496
compensation was paid by royal precept to Gilbert
Brade, whose house in Stirling this official had spoilt.
In the summer of 1498 a person, who evidently
occupied an analogous position with regard to the
midsummer festivities, the " Abbot of Na Rent," in-
curred certain expenses at the castle. As elsewhere,
there came to the court at Stirling players on the
tabor, luters, singers, Italian minstrels and English
minstrels, bards, morris-dancers with their minstrels,
and " spelaris " or climbers. In 1503 James Jaclen
1 68 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
received 145. for bringing a mavis, probably trained
to sing, to the king at Stirling. The "vailyeand
knychtis " held tourneys in the barres, for which were
provided ferrules, swords, and tourney heads, and
spears, red spears, great spears, and banners. A
reward was earned by a Spaniard who displayed his
horsemanship in the park ; and the king lost money
when he played cards, when he shot with the culveryn,
and "at the running between the butts." In May
1502 he sent a coat of gold from Stirling to the King
of Denmark.
Of " potingars " at Stirling there is particular
mention. In 1502 28s. were paid to Foularton, who
went to the court to make precious stones by the
king's command. In 1503 quicksilver to the value
of £5, 55. was sent to Stirling packed in a box and in
skins, and twenty-eight goldsmith's pots were provided
for the " mediciners " there. Next year an apothe-
cary despatched to the queen at Stirling half a pound
of a hot aromatic drug called galiga, as much " long "
pepper and cinnamon, three ounces of cubebs, a car-
minative spice, and seven vials. These must have
had a culinary purpose ; but there is other evidence
that the king in this castle gratified his scientific tastes.
Drugs were delivered there in 1507 ; in 1508 a reward
was paid to David the barber who drew aqua vitae,
and a furnace was constructed in which to melt metals ;
in 1513 there is mention of Robert Maclellan, who
made water into quintessence, of aqua vitas made
into quintessence, of a pan for quintessence, of a
"tub and stuff" for the king's closet in Stirling, of
the " potingary " there, and of glasses brought from
Edinburgh. In 1 507 John Damian, the king's French
leech, attempted to fly from the walls of the castle
with a pair of artificial wings ; and his failure evoked
STIRLING CASTLE 169
from Dunbar <c Ane ballet of the fenzeit (feigned)
freir of Tungland how he fell in the myre fleand to
Turkiland."
The outdoor sport chiefly enjoyed at Stirling
appears to have been that of hawking. We know
of hawk bells there supplied to the king by a French-
man at a cost of 8s., of a falconer who passed thence
to find hawks, of Dandie Doule who stayed behind the
king in Stirling with the hawks, of Hector Stewart who
carried the hawks to Stirling, of a boy who climbed
to a hawk's nest in the Abbot's Craig. Deer were
hunted much less frequently than at Falkland ; but
James IV. endeavoured to improve this sport. In
1502 wages were paid to the wife who kept the
kids at Stirling, and in the same year young does
were carried thither from Falkland and deer from
Cumbrae. Deer were brought from Falkland in 1504 ;
on sixteen occasions in the winter of 1505; divers
times, in seven litters, in the winter of 1506 ;
and again in that of 1507. In September 1507
the laird of Wemyss gave three white deer to be
put in Stirling Park. The lands of Gallowhills had
in 1506 been conceded to the king by the borough
and included by the wall of the castle and park. In
1508 those of Auldpark were added to the New Park
for the pasture of deer. Certain live herons were
delivered to James at Stirling in 1497, perhaps for
breeding purposes. The park was used also for the
grazing of cows and sheep ; a house in the borough
was still rented for an avery or cattle-house.
There is nothing more interesting than the details
which exist concerning the gardens at the castle.
The gardeners were the canons of the chapel royal,
often designated monks, as was usual in this period.
From 1492 until 1496 wages in money and allowances
ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
of meal were received by Brother Archibald Hamilton
and Brother John Caldwell for their labours in the
garden and for the repair of the castle lawn. But
in 1496 and 1497 a new garden, called the great
garden, was made beneath the castle wail : payments
were received by the monk who cast it, and by Dean
Matthew of Culross, monk of Stirling, for building
its dikes ; and many trees were planted in it. Sir
John Millar, whose prefix was a customary one for
clergymen, procured eleven hundred young trees in
1497 ; next year trees were supplied by the gardener
of Alloa, and ^10 were allotted to Dean Matthew with
which to buy trees. He procured also peas and beans
at a cost of i8s. In the spring of 1501 a hedge of
thorns was made in the new garden ; osiers and other
trees were planted ; and in April 28s. were paid to a
Frenchman and his helper who planted vines, called
wine trees. Herbs were procured from the gardener
of Scone. In the following January sixteen pear trees,
and hay in which to bed them, were carried to Stirling ;
the gardener in February bought willows and thirty-
six other trees. In April rosemary from Bothwell
was planted. Next year more trees were bought ; a
paling was made for the orchard and seeds were sown
by the master cook. Dean Matthew received 255. for
buying 1500 plum trees. In March 1504 more fruit
trees were carried to Stirling. In May an entry of a
rarer kind was made ; the gardener received 35. in
order that he might go to Culross to fetch flowers for
planting. Expenses of a like kind were incurred in
the succeeding years of the reign ; more trees were
planted, and more seeds sown by the master cook. In
June 1504, 565. were paid for the furnishing of the
little garden. A French gardener was employed from
1502 until 1505, when he received £7 as the cost
STIRLING CASTLE 171
of his clothes during the years of his service. There
are evidences that the garden was productive : the
gardener in October 1506 brought pears to the king;
in June he supplied the court with strawberries. It
would seem, if regard be had to the situation of
Stirling, that early varieties of that fruit must already
have been discovered ; and it is indeed on record that he
produced other strawberries, perhaps of the commoner
kind, in August of the same year. In July 1507 he
was rewarded for bringing cherries to the king.
In the spring of 1498 certain stanks or fishing
ponds were made at Stirling, probably in the new
garden. These were stocked with various fish, trout,
burn-trout from Buchanan, lampreys, and pike. There
is a reference to an " Ersche," probably a Highland
fisher, who received 145. with which to go home from
Stirling, but whether he had brought fish to the ponds
or fished them does not appear. In 1505 wages were
paid to some fishers of the stanks. There were swans
which must have swum on the fishponds, and in 1504
a white peacock was brought to Stirling. That there
were these birds makes inevitable the conclusion that,
in spite of the scanty allusions to the planting or
sowing of flowers, the gardens were not only utilitarian
in character but were designed for beauty and for
pleasure. Gavin Douglas, a poet of the reign, has left
on record that
" Ane paradice it semyt to draw neyr
Thyr galyart gardingis and like greyn herbere."
James IV. was probably the most pious of all the
Stewart sovereigns ; and the " cunning craft " of his
servants was much employed on the fabric and orna-
ment of the chapel royal. In 1497 David the wricht
had completed in it an altar and the " sylour " ; from
172 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
that year until 1504 "auld David" the carver was
engaged on work in the gallery ; another carver was
employed on the ceiling of the chapel ; the organs
were mended in 1507 by a canon of Holyrood ; the
Easter sepulchre, the chapel door, and the Judas cross
were repaired. Of the embroiderer's art special use
was made. In 1498 Sir John Kilgour mended six
arras cloths, and made a new hanging to be placed
above the altar.' In August 1501 a large sum was
spent on materials delivered to Nannik the "brodster."
He received velvet to be adorned with gold work, and
crosses for hangings for the rood-stand and the altar,
green damask to make stoles and handkerchiefs, black
and blue sewing silk, Bruges thread white and blue,
green and yellow ribbons bought by the ounce, buckram
for lining and red and blue buckram, three quires of
paper to lay under the gold-work of the capes ; and to
make a coat for " the rood in Calvary " satin cramoisie,
silk for fringes and silk for a belt. In March 1511
there were brought from the jewel-house and handed
over in the king's presence to the " brodster " four
caparisons or coverings for horses : one of purple satin
and another of grey damask were adorned with cloth
of gold, the two others were of white damask orna-
mented with silk, and all were lined with canvas.
These were ordered to be converted into vestments
and hangings for the tables and altars of the chapels
of Holyrood and Stirling. In 1513 a monk of
Culross received 563. for binding and illuminating
two books for the chapel royal at Stirling. There
is mention also of the purchase of brass candlesticks
for the altar and of flagons and cruets of tin.
The Bishop of Galloway became in 1504 dean
ex officio of the chapel royal ; and throughout this
reign grants increased its endowment. In 1501 the
STIRLING CASTLE 173
quarterly wages of " the chaplains of the church "
consisted of £10 received by a provost, ^5 by each
of seven chaplains, ^2, los. by an unspecified bene-
ficiary, and 403. by each of six " children of the choir."
Probably the provost was the dean, and the chaplains
the canons. There were ten canonries in the church in
1504, of which three appear to have been held in 1506
by a dean, a sub-dean, and a treasurer.
In 1506 a mason had completed his "task of the
old kirk," and two years later payment was made to
three chaplains in " the old kirk newly erected by the
present king in the castle." It would seem, therefore,
that James rebuilt the original chapel of the castle,
which was distinct from the chapel royal.
James IV. took much delight in the services of the
chapel royal. He was, moreover, a lay brother of the
Franciscan convent which he established at Stirling, and
in that house, in the habit of a grey friar, he sometimes
kept the Lenten fast. It may be, therefore, that he
was doing penance not in the chapel royal but among
the Franciscan monks, when Dunbar, from Edinburgh,
wrote his " Dirge " to " King James IV. being in
Strivilling " : —
" Cum hame and dwell no moir in Strivilling
From hiddous hell cum hame and dwell,
Quhair fische to sell is non but spirling,
Cum hame and dwell no moir in Strivilling."
The journey to Stirling from Edinburgh was some-
times made by water, as when in October 1511 the
king went Stirlingward in the Margaret ship.
Throughout this reign large sums were spent on
the fabric of the castle. The hall was completed ;
locks were provided for it in 1496. The master
mason of Linlithgow rode to Stirling in November of
next year " to give his device to the work." A bell
174 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
was provided for the castle, and the gallery furnished.
The gate tower was building in 1501 ; payment for
the fore entry was made in 1502, for iron for the
great portcullis and for the kitchen tower in 1503.
The ornament of the hall was executed in plaster
work: in 1503 John Giles, Englishman, brought
alabaster stones and plaster from England and worked
them at Stirling, and in that year and the next a
French plasterer named Dorange was also employed.
Sir James Pettigrew in 1502 came to Stirling "to
devise" a clock. In 1504 nine plates of white iron
were provided for the queen's chamber " for assizes,"
that is, presumably, for weighing purposes.
In 1505 a French wright came to Stirling. In that
year payment was made for " the task " of the Red
Tower, and from 1505 to 1508 for that of the foreyett
or front gate and the forework. A painter was em-
ployed in 1507. In 1507-8 work was done on the
old hall and on the old chambers on the west side of
the old close; in 1511—12 much glazing was under-
taken, and the great tower in the northmost corner
of the castle was completed and headed from the
corbels upwards; in 1513 the turnpike and back-
stairs of the nether tower were roofed, and bands,
rings, and roses were provided for certain windows.
The lions so frequently kept by Scottish kings had
probably a heraldic significance. There was a lion-
house in the courtyard of Stirling Castle in 1512.
Sir David Lindsay has left his impression of the
castle in the " Farewell of Papingo " : —
11 Adew fair Snawdoun, with thy towris hie,
Thy Chapill Royal, Park and Tabill Round.
May, June, and July wald I dwell in thee,
War I ane man, to heir the birdis sound
Quhilk doth agane thy Royall Rocke resound."
STIRLING CASTLE 175
When after Flodden Scotland passed to a king
only four months old, he was brought by his mother
to Stirling Castle. For minor sovereigns to live in
this house became gradually a practice. It was, of the
great Scottish palaces, the one which was also an im-
portant fortress, and an obviously convenient residence
for rulers who as minors were often violently guarded
from abduction by violence.
The earliest guardian of James V. at the castle was
the queen mother. She in April 1514 bore to James IV.
a posthumous son who was baptized at Stirling by the
Bishop of Caithness. His sponsors were the Prior of
Dunfermline and the Archdeacon of St. Andrews who
named him Alexander : he was known afterwards as the
Duke of Ross. On the 6th of August Margaret married
the young Earl of Angus. Thereafter she and her hus-
band attempted to kidnap the little king from Stirling
Castle, in order to set him free from the authority of
Albany who then was in France. They were foiled in
the attempt, but James continued the centre of family
intrigues made bitter by his mother's marriage to a
member of the house of Douglas. In November
Margaret wrote from Stirling Castle to Henry VIII.,
her brother, to beg release from the dangers with
which she was threatened by Home and by Arran. In
July 1515, after the return of Albany, Margaret was
deposed from her guardianship of her sons in favour of
a committee of four lords. From Stirling Castle she
defied the edict ; and Albany in August blockaded
the place and brought up siege guns, while an officer
passed through the regality of Dunfermline to warn
lieges to help in the safe keeping of the castle. Finally
the queen surrendered ; and the four-year-old king
walked to the gate of the castle, and gave the keys to
the governor, who did him homage, " and they agreed
176 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
well together." Margaret went to Edinburgh and
then to England.
Late in the year occurred the death of the little
Duke of Ross. The king was left in the castle
then in the keepership of John, Lord Drummond,
chamberlain of Strathearn. In August 1516, the lords
in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh were ordered to
convoy the governor when he rode with an Englishman
to Stirling to see the king. Such visits of Albany were
frequent during the childhood which James passed at
the castle. There is mention in 1515 of John Graham,
the king's trumpeter, who served him daily ; and in
1516 of James Tabbaner, his minstrel, for whom a
gown, doublet, and hose were provided, and who
seems to have been a permanent servant. From the
ist of August 1522 John, Lord Erskine, was with the
king ; he may have held his later place of captain or
keeper of the castle. After 1523 James, Earl of
Moray, appears to have been an officer of the house-
hold ; and Alan Stewart was captain of a royal guard
assigned with the governor's consent.
In 1524, when the king was twelve years old,
occurred the incident known as the "Erection."
Albany left Scotland for France in May ; and Mar-
garet had won over certain of her son's attendants,
Erskine and Borthwick. On the 26th of July she
rode from Stirling Castle to Edinburgh with them
and the king, and with Arran, Lennox, Crawford, and
Morton. At Edinburgh on the 3<Dth the lords
signed an engagement with the queen mother, by
which they acknowledged that James had left Stirling
for his own good and that of the realm, and revoked
and promised to annul in the next parliament all
grants of authority to Albany.
From this time Stirling Castle was no longer the
STIRLING CASTLE 177
chief residence of James V. although he visited it fre-
quently. In October 1525 Champnay messenger was
ordered to direct the lords and barons of Angus incon-
tinently to be at Stirling, in order to convoy the king
thence to Edinburgh.
The success of the "Erection" had transferred
James from the power of Albany to that of the
Douglases. In May 1528, he effected his escape
from that family, not at Falkland, as is traditionally
related, but at Edinburgh. Pitscottie states that he
arrived at Stirling at break of day, crossed the bridge,
and caused it, for fear of pursuit, to be closed behind
him. Then he went to the castle and was received
with much joy by Erskine, the captain, who would
appear to have been attached rather to the king's
person than to any party, since he had assisted in the
flight of 1524. He now ugart steik the gates and
drew down the portcullis, and pat the king in his bed
to sleep because he had ridden all night." A pro-
hibition to come within twelve miles of the castle was
issued to Angus, and to Archibald and George Douglas
and their familiars. James was a free king. He was
joined at Stirling by the queen mother, and on the
6th of July the two rode to Edinburgh at the head
of a great company of adherents. There were the
bishops of Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dunkeld, Galloway,
and Brechin ; and of temporal lords, Argyll, Arran,
Eglinton, Rothes, Bothwell, Maxwell, Avondale,
Set on, Forbes, Hume, and Ycstre ; and followers to
the number of three hundred.
James was at Stirling again in the early summer of
1529, when black satin, black velvet, and cramoisie,
were delivered at the castle to make him a doublet,
and Holland cloth for his sark. There is other
evidence that his taste in dress was more sober than
M
178 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
that of his father or Perkin Warbeck. In August £10
were paid to Alexander Forester who made lists for
the king.
At about this time Margaret resigned her right in
Stirling Castle, one of her dower-houses, to her son.
He was there for the Christmas of 1530, when an
English herald attended the court. On New Year's
day 1531, some Italian minstrels entertained the king.
On the 3Oth of January an English courier brought to
Stirling the pope's brief for a general council. In this
month and in February, and again in May, spears
were sent to the castle for use in the lists.
For much of the winter of 1531 and the succeed-
ing Eastertide the court were again at Stirling. Once
more jousting spears were procured; and in 1534
the lists beneath the castle were enlarged. In July of
that year, as James was hunting in the park, he fell
from his horse and received an " evil hurt." Perhaps
the accident prolonged his stay, for he had not yet
gone in August ; and in the park he was waylaid by
Archibald Douglas, who had been exiled in England
and who now humbly submitted himself to the king's
grace and will. James gave no full forgiveness. He
" commended " Douglas to go, under escort, to Leith,
and afterwards to France, where he remained until his
death in Paris.
In Lent 1536, Lord William Howard interviewed
James at Stirling as to a proposed meeting between the
English and Scottish kings, in which the latter was to
be introduced to the new opinions on religion. The
scheme had as little result as that of an English mar-
riage for the king, who in August set sail for France
to fetch his bride. Either, however, by the design of
those who favoured an English alliance, or by accident,
his ships took a wrong course, and he returned to the
STIRLING CASTLE 179
western isles and landed at Rothesay. There he found
horses and men to convey him to Stirling Castle, where
he remained until he heard that his ship had reached
the road of Leith, when he joined her and journeyed
to Paris.
After her landing in Scotland Queen Mary of
Guise came from Falkland to Stirling, where she was
formally received by the town and the castle. Thence
she went to Edinburgh by way of Linlithgow. In this
year, 1538, James received at Stirling six English
bows, all purchased, which he gave away.
In the spring of 1539 he again held the tourneys
which were so favourite an amusement of the court
when at this castle. His " harness, spears, and other
jousting gear" were carried from Edinburgh to Stir-
ling. During the same visit there were delivered at
the castle a silver stoup for " inbringing the king's
collation," and three quarters of an ell of red satin to
make for him a skull-cap. Two children, for whom
were provided coats in "couleur de roi," came from
Aberdeen to sing in the chapel royal ; and Jane, the
French dwarf at the castle, received a gown of " light
blue purple " velvet lined with light blue, and a kirtle
lined with green.
Probably the last occasion on which James visited
the castle was in the spring of 1542. The queen
seems to have remained there after his departure ; in
July Ormond pursuivant warned the lords of Stirling-
shire and the Lothians to convoy her from the castle to
Peebles.
There is little on record as to the park and the
gardens in the reign of James V. Until 1531, when
the castle had been handed over to the king, the
expenses of upkeep were the private affair of Queen
Margaret. The keeper of the park, like the gardener,
i8o ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
received after that date an annual fee and an allowance
of oatmeal. In 1533 payment was made for the
building of the garden dike, and Sir John Nicholson
was rewarded for feeding two cranes and a peacock
which belonged to the castle. £20 were awarded to
William Bell in 1539 to help him to construct a
"kechpule" or tennis-court in Stirling, but this
may have lain outside the precincts of the castle.
A new stable was mended and furnished in 1538,
and there is evidence of its importance, for we hear
of the king's great horse at Stirling and of a Dutch
horse led thither. Nine sheepskins dressed like
Spanish leather were used to cover three steel saddles.
In 1534 a dog-house was made.
Throughout this reign there were maintained a
staff of eight night and one day watchmen and two
porters.
The building of the palace, as distinct from the
castle, is ascribed to James V., and as at Linlithgow,
the king is said to have been guided in the work by
his favourite, Sir James Hamilton of Finnart. The
Exchequer Rolls and the treasurer's accounts contain
however far fewer detailed entries with regard to
building at Stirling in this reign than in the last.
It is noticed that in the first year of the reign more
than ^28 were spent on the interior by order of the
queen mother ; and this, together with the record of
the payment made in 1496 to Walter Marlyonne,
mason, for " biggin of the king's hous," proves that
the work had been at least begun by James IV. In
1542 two kitchens had been made.
After the death of James V., Stirling Castle became
again the residence of a child sovereign, the infant
Queen Mary, who with her mother was brought
thither from Linlithgow in August 1543. On Sun-
STIRLING CASTLE 181
day the Qth of September, at about ten in the morn-
ing, she was crowned in the chapel royal, "with
such solemnity," wrote Sadler to Henry VIII. , " as
they do use in this country, which is not very costly. "
The crown was borne by Arran, the governor, the
sceptre by Lennox, and the sword by Argyll. Others
who were at the castle were Cardinal Beaton, Bothwell,
Huntly, and many more, all of the party which inclined
to French influence and were opposed to that of Eng-
land. Pitscottie tells us that this court of Mary of
Guise was like that of " Venus and Cupid in time of
fresh May." " There was sic dancing, singing, playing
and merrieness that no man would have tired therein."
He states that both Lennox and Bothwell aspired to
the hand of the queen mother, and that they daily vied
with each other in the gallantry of their behaviour and
their dress, and in " dancing, shooting, singing, jousting,
and running of great horses in the lists." Bothwell
is described as " ane yong lusty gentleman, fair and
pleasant in sight of weman . . . whitely and something
hingand schoulderit and gaed forward, with gentle
and human countenance." He was worsted at all
games by Lennox, who owing to his French education
with his uncle d'Aubigne was well practised in warlike
exercises, and who was " ane strang man of personage,
weil schapen in portraiture . . . pleasant faced." Mary
gave to either suitor fair words only.
Meanwhile the other party in Scottish politics was
engaged in a close correspondence with Henry VIII. ,
whose object it was to gain possession of the young
queen. Trust was at first placed in Arran, who was
directed to get into his hands Stirling, that Henry
might have a place more convenient than Berwick in
which to lay his treasure. Then Arran's defection to
the party of the queen mother and the cardinal became
1 82 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
known. Two days after the coronation, Henry wrote
to Angus his desire that his friends should seize
Stirling Castle and the persons of Arran, the cardinal,
and the little queen. Sadler, on the 5th of October,
informed his master that the castle was well furnished
with ordnance and artillery, and that its situation
enabled the queen's guardians to convey her at any
moment of peril into the impenetrable fastnesses of
the Highlands. Yet he held out hopes that a siege
might be undertaken if sufficient money were advanced.
The Scots were, however, less sanguine. Angus and
his party made a statement as to the impossibility of
gaining possession of the queen. To do so by stealth,
by obtaining leave to visit her, was not feasible, be-
cause the suspicion of her guardians was such that
none of their party would ever be permitted to enter
the castle. No noble in the realm might do so with
more than one or two servants in his company, and
only the queen dowager had free access to her daughter.
While they had been in the town of Stirling the cap-
tain had remained within the castle, and had kept all
the guns " mounted, rammed, and charged," that he
might beat them out of the town with shot and
ordnance if they did anything derogatory to the
governor's authority.
On the very day on which this declaration was
written to Henry, the legate and the French ambas-
sador arrived at the castle with money and munition.
On Christmas day 1543 Arran lost a hundred
crowns as he played cards with the queen mother
in Stirling Castle.
In June 1544 he was deprived of her support.
Glencairn, Angus, and certain other Douglases came
to Stirling Castle to speak to Mary of Guise ; and
they made various accusations against Arran, and
STIRLING CASTLE 183
summoned him to resign his governorship to the
dowager queen, who for a short time had joined their
faction. Arran asked for a day to consider his answer,
and then with only two men he stole out of Stirling
and retired to Blackness Castle.
He was again received by the queen mother at the
castle in 1545, after Ancrum fight, when she was much
rejoiced by his victory over the English. In July of
that year the privy council gave the sole care of the
queen's person at Stirling Castle to John, Lord Erskine,
still keeper, and to Alexander, Lord Livingstone.
Each was paid at the rate of j£6o a month ; to
Erskine were assigned certain sixteen men, and to
Livingstone certain twelve, who were exempted from
obligation to arm against England or for other cause,
and deputed with their households to remain in
the castle.
In September Thomas Forrest, pursuivant, passed
to Stirling with the fiery cross that the people might
gather to help Arran to resist the Englishmen.
In the same year Longe de Montgomery, with
treasure and five hundred men-at-arms, arrived in
Scotland from France. While some of his company
went to the cardinal's city of St. Andrews, there to
winter, he came to Stirling. He had in the French
court been a comrade of Lennox, who long since had
been estranged from Mary and the cardinal and
had left the country. Therefore Longe was no
friend to Beaton, and on one occasion, in the queen
mother's presence, he mocked and scorned him for
broken promises to Lennox. Then the cardinal, in
anger, gave him the lie, whereupon Longe pulled
out his knife and would have stabbed the other had
he not been hurled to the door. He had called the
cardinal a false priest, who had spent the French
184 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
king's money in vain, and who had by slanderous
reports deprived the Earl of Lennox of the favour
of the king of France. It was impossible for the
two to remain in the same house, and Mary asked
the cardinal to retire for a while to his city. In St.
Andrews he entertained the lieutenants of Longe, but
Longe himself would not look at him from that hour.
The Frenchman departed in the spring.
Lennox had become attached meanwhile to the
English interest. On the 24th of August 1547, he
and Wharton wrote to Somerset that they had received
from him ten proclamations, of which one was to be
posted on the gate of Stirling Castle. It must have
summoned Scottish subjects to join the invading army
of England, from the gate of the fortress in which was
Mary of Guise, the chief enemy of the English. This
was the army which on the loth of September fought
the battle of Pinkie Cleuch, so disastrous to Scotland.
After their defeat Arran, his brother Archbishop
Hamilton, and some others fled to Stirling Castle,
and remained for a time with the queen mother.
She is said to have concealed her resentment against
the governor who had suffered such calamities to
happen, that she might win his consent to the sending
of her daughter to France.
For the little Queen Mary, now nearly five years
old, was again the prize for which two parties were
hotly contesting. On the 1 6th of September Somer-
set sent Norroy Herald to the queen mother and the
council at Stirling. His mission in Scotland was,
he declared, " to forward the godly purpose " of the
marriage of the Scottish queen and Edward VI. In
answer Mary of Guise removed the queen to Inchma-
hone in the Lake of Menteith. Thence in February
1548 the fear of another English invasion caused her
STIRLING CASTLE 185
to be taken to Dumbarton. On the 2nd of August
she set sail on the western sea for France with the four
Maries, who were her child friends, and with Erskine
her guardian at Stirling, her brother Lord James
Stewart, and many others.
In June 1549 the lands forfeited by Lennox were
granted to William, Earl of Montrose, for the service
which he had done, by his care of the castle of Stirling
and of the queen, during the past dangerous time
of war.
After the departure of the queen, Stirling Castle
is for some years unknown to history. It figures,
though not importantly, in the struggle between the
queen mother, then regent, and the lords of the con-
gregation. At Stirling Mary of Guise heard of the
havoc wrought by the iconoclasts in Perth in 1559,
and from Stirling, with her forces, she went to Auch-
terarder. After leaving Perth in June she was at
the castle, on her way to Falkland. In December the
place was occupied by the French, who however retired
hastily when Winter's fleet entered the Firth of Forth.
In January 1560 they had recovered Stirling, and they
left it only in March.
The battery at the castle which commands Stirling
Bridge, and is still called " the French battery," is said
to have been erected by Mary of Guise.
It was in September 1561 that Queen Mary,
during her first and triumphant progress through her
kingdom, came back to the castle from which exactly
fourteen years before she had been carried by stealth
as a little child. She stayed for two days, and her
visit was distinguished by an escape from death. A
burning candle set fire to the curtains and the tester of
her bed, and she was in danger of being smothered in
her sleep by the smoke. Men said an ancient prophecy,
1 86 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
that a queen should be burnt at Stirling, was ful-
filled.
She paid subsequent visits to the castle. In May
1565 she there created Darnley knight of Torbolton,
Lord Ardmannach, and Earl of Ross. Only when this
ceremony was completed would she accord an audience
to Sir Nicholas Throkmorton, who came to remonstrate
on her projected marriage. He dined with the queen,
and reported to Elizabeth that English interference
might still prevent the wedding. But in September
" King Henry " and Queen Mary were together at
Stirling Castle ; the inhabitants of Strathearn met
them at Stirling Bridge on their arrival.
Two years later, on the loth of December, the
queen and the court went from Holyrood to Stirling
for the baptism of the infant prince. That week the
lords and ambassadors arrived in the town : the comte
de Brienne, ambassador from the court of France,
with thirty horse in his train, on the I2th; on the
1 3th the Earl of Bedford, English ambassador, who
was convoyed by the Abbot of Arbroath and his
friends. On this day the privy council ordained that
since there was so great a concourse in the borough,
a herald should at the market cross proclaim that all
lieges were charged to keep the peace on pain of death
or other penalty. None must carry culverins, daggers,
pistolets, or any weapon except a swcrd and a whinger ;
the captain, constable, and keepers of the castle, and
the provost and bailies of the borough, were ordered
to search out and apprehend the disobedient and con-
fiscate their arms.
The baptismal ceremony took place on the lyth.
From the door of the prince's chamber to that of the
chapel royal the barons and gentlemen of Scotland
stood ranked on either side of the way, holding wax
STIRLING CASTLE 187
torches in their hands. Between them the prince
was borne by Lady Argyll, commissioned to act as
"cummer" in place of the Queen of England, and by
the French ambassador and du Croc, who on this
occasion represented the Duke of Savoy. They were
followed by Athol with a great torch of wax, and by
Eglinton, Sempill, and Ross, who carried the laver and
basin and other necessaries for the ceremony. At the
chapel door the prince was received by the Archbishop
of St. Andrews, who wore his pontifical robes, and bore
all the insignia of his office. He was assisted in an
elaborate musical service by the bishops of Dunkeld,
Dunblane, and Ross, and the Prior of Whitthern, all
wearing their rochets and hoods ; and the canons of
the chapel were present in their habits and copes.
Thus the names of James Charles were given to the
heir to the throne. The religious scruples of Huntly,
Moray, Bothwell, and Bedford prevented them from
entering the chapel.
After the ceremony all the company passed into
the great hall for supper. The queen sat at the
middle of the table with de Brienne on her right,
Bedford on her left, and du Croc at the end of the
board ; and she and each ambassador had chief nobles
of the kingdom for carver, cupper, and sewer. The
lords entered the hall bearing in their hands fair
torches, well ordered ; and before the meat was
brought in there was a procession of heralds, macers,
and trumpeters, followed by the three masters of the
household, after whom came singly Seton and Argyll.
The feast was succeeded by dancing and music.
On the evening of the I9th the queen entertained
the lords and ambassadors. Maskery and music pre-
ceded a banquet. Afterwards there was in the church-
yard the spectacle of a sham fort, and a display of
1 88 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
artillery, fireballs, and fire-spears. Then in the castle
the queen created the little prince Duke of Rothesay,
Earl of Kyle, Carrick, and Cunningham, and Baron
of Renfrew ; and she dubbed several knights.
The ambassadors left Stirling on the 22nd. The
Jueen and the prince remained until the i4th of
anuary, when they too returned to Edinburgh.
On the 2Oth of March the infant prince was
brought back to Stirling. The danger of the times
had caused him to be taken away from Holyrood,
and he was given into the keepership of Lord Erskine,
who had come to be known by the title of the greater
dignity he had acquired, that of the earldom of Mar.
In April the earl received a grant in tail male of the
captaincy of Stirling Castle, the keepership of the
park, the shrievalty of the sheriffdom, and the baili-
wick and chamberlainry of the lordship.
On the 2 ist of April Queen Mary came for the
last time to Stirling, to visit her son. Three days
later, as she was on her way back to Edinburgh, her
alleged abduction by Bothwell took place.
Three months afterwards the little prince was
again the central figure of a scene enacted in the
chapel royal, a ceremony hastily performed by a small
band of men in momentary fear of interruption, their
minds filled with thoughts of past dangers and rumours
of dangers to come. On the 29th of July, at about
two in the afternoon, townsmen of Stirling and soldiers
gathered on the castle hill ready for a sudden out-
break or attack. Then Lady Mar issued out of the
castle with the prince in her arms, and went towards
the chapel. She was followed by her husband and by
Morton, Athol, Glencairn, Hume, Lindsay, Ruthven,
Sanquhar, and some undistinguished barons. When
they had reached the chapel, Adam, Bishop of Orkney,
STIRLING CASTLE 189
delivered an exhortation ; and then he anointed the
prince, on whose head Athol placed the crown. The
little procession returned to the castle ; Athol with
the crown, Morton with the sceptre, Glencairn with
the sword, and Mar who carried King James VI.
The twelve succeeding years were passed by the
king in Stirling Castle. Pedagogues were appointed
for him before 1572, George Buchanan and Peter
Young, and his schoolroom on the south-eastern side
of the building can still be seen. It is in these years
that he must have acquired the considerable learning,
the hatred of narrow Puritanism, and the pedantry
which afterwards distinguished him. When he was
seven years old he was visited by Henry Killigrew,
who has left an account of his impressions. The
Englishman found a precocious boy, "well grown in
body and spirit," and full of courtly speeches. He
desired his thanks and commendations to Queen Eliza-
beth, to whom he declared himself much bound,
4 'yea, more than to his own mother." Buchanan and
Young, who were exhibiting their pupil, requested
Killigrew to choose any chapter out of the Bible ; and
James thereupon astonished his visitor by translating
it from Latin to French and from French to English,
in such manner that few could have added anything
to his versions. He spoke French marvellously well.
It is surprising to hear that his masters also made the
king dance before Killigrew, and that he acquitted
himself with a very good grace. He was at this time
still under the charge of women, except when he
" went to his book."
Buchanan, while he was the king's schoolmaster,
was writing his History of Scotland and reading the
literature of the period ; and in Stirling Castle many
events connected with the history of the day were
190 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
enacted, which all had part in the education of the
king.
In February, and again in March 1569, the Regent
Moray and a great part of the nobility visited the
king. In August, at a council held in Stirling,
Thomas Crawford accused Maitland of Lethington
and James Balfour of the murder of Darnley. They
were imprisoned for a time in the castle. On the
1 9th of January 1570, the English envoys Gate and
Drury arrived at Stirling to see the regent. He
had sent two or three men to meet them on their
way, and himself received them at the lower end
of the hall very courteously, and with friendly
embraces. Dinner was announced in the midst of
speech, and the envoys dined with the regent, and
were afterwards interviewed by him in his bed-
chamber, when he again showed himself " very
hearty." A few days later Moray was murdered at
Linlithgow; and on the 28th, Mar wrote from
Stirling to Elizabeth to beg her aid in his custody
of the King of Scotland, who was now in great
danger.
In August the new regent, the king's grandfather,
Lennox, came to Stirling, on his way to follow north-
wards to his own country the Earl of Huntly. He
received Morton at the castle in April 1571.
In August, to answer the parliament which Kirk-
caldy held for Queen Mary in Edinburgh, Lennox
in Stirling convened a king's parliament. The five-
year-old king, clad in the magnificent robe royal,
rode from the castle to the tolbooth in Stirling,
the emblems of his office borne before him by Glen-
cairn, Crawford, and Angus : the sword, sceptre, and
crown were new, because those anciently used were
possessed by his mother's friends. " My lords and
STIRLING CASTLE 191
others, true subjects," he said, when he had arrived
in the presence of the estates, speaking apparently
with parrot-like exactitude, "we are convenit here
as I understand to do justice ; and because my age
will not suffer me to do my charge by myself, I
have given my power to my guidsire as regent, and
you to do ; and you will answer to God and to me
hereafter." A spontaneous remark was quoted as a
prophetic utterance ; James noticed a hole in the
roof, and pointing to it he said, " There is a hole in
this parliament."
A week later, on the 3rd of September, the lords
assembled for the parliament were still in Stirling
borough. From Edinburgh Kirkcaldy sent Huntly
and Claude Hamilton, and Buccleuch and Fernie-
hurst, with a company of troopers; and these men
stole into the town when all were in bed, and for
two and a half hours they could work their will.
They went to the lodgings of all the nobles in turn,
forced an entrance and took prisoners the occupants,
the lords of the king's parliament, Lennox among
the rest. At the house of Morton they received a
check, for the earl with only eight men maintained a
defence ; and so protracted was the siege which ensued
that the troopers, "full-handed men of Teviotdale
and Liddesdale," wearied and betook themselves to
plunder. The town was in wild confusion ; houses
blazed ; women leapt in panic from the windows, and
the dead bodies of some of them lay in the street.
The prisoners were guarded near the gate by several
of the attacking lords. However the delay before
Morton's house gave time for a party to charge to
the rescue from the castle. The troopers had dis-
persed in their spoiling of the town, and the men
of the castle galloped unchecked through the borough
192 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
and down to the gate to set free the prisoners. But
when rescue seemed inevitable, one of the invaders,
Calder by name, shot the Earl of Lennox. His
captor, Spens of Wormiston, was killed in a gallant
attempt to save his life. Thus was slain James's
grandfather, the second regent of his minority.
He was succeeded in his office by the keeper of
Stirling, the Earl of Mar, who in consequence was
afterwards frequently absent from the castle. This
house was visited in 1572, as well as other strong-
holds in the hands of the king's party, by the English
ambassador. On the 6th of August the regent rode
thither from Edinburgh, and on the nth he there
received du Croc, ambassador of the King of France,
who was endeavouring to negotiate a peace. On
the 1 8th of October Mar died in Stirling Castle,
wearied to death, it was said, by the endless strife
in the realm. " The maist cause of his deid was that
he luvit peace and culd nocht have the same." By his
will he left the keeping of the king and of the castle
to his brother, Alexander, Master of Erskine. His
son, a boy of eleven, was the king's companion.
The new regent, Morton, ruled in November that
James should remain at Stirling ; and the Master of
Erskine undertook on behalf of himself and all friends
and servants of the Earl of Mar to keep the castle
for the king's use under the regent's direction. He
would not suffer the king to be removed, nor allow
any disaffected to have access to him. No earl
would be received in the castle with more than two
servants, no lord with more than one, and no gentle-
man who was attended, nor any person who bore
armour or weapons. The number of the household
would not be increased. The pedagogues of the
king, Buchanan and Young, would not be removed
STIRLING CASTLE 193
without the regent's consent, nor ever replaced by
any of religious profession which differed from theirs,
or any whom the regent did not approve. In the
castle there would be, as heretofore, public religious
exercise according to the form sanctioned by parlia-
ment. The appointment of Alexander under these
conditions was confirmed by an ordinance of the
council and an act of parliament. It was decreed,
moreover, that of four friends of the house of Erskine,
the Master himself, the Earl of Buchan, William
Douglas of Lochleven, and David, commendator of
Dryburgh, two must always be in the castle ; and that
Lady Mar should continue her <c government towards
the king's mouth and the ordering of his person."
Meanwhile, " the bairn " waa equally an object
to the other party in politics. There were rumours,
in the spring of 1573, of a scheme to convey him
to France. The years of Morton's regency were how-
ever peaceful, and no great event is chronicled in the
history of the castle. In May 1573 James had small-
pox during an epidemic of that disease in Stirling.
In 1578 the stirring times returned. Argyll
arrived at the castle in February, and was followed
by Athol. They two and the Master of Erskine
were all enemies to Morton, and they persuaded the
king to summon a convention of the nobility. At
the meeting Morton resigned his regency ; and the
king, who was not yet twelve years old, himself
assumed the government, " howbeit," according to
Moysie, "he knew it would be troublesome to him."
His personal rule was naturally at this time a fiction,
but the troubles arrived speedily. Before the con-
vened nobles had dispersed, the followers of Crawford
and of Glamis, between whom there was a feud,
engaged in a brawl in the streets of Stirling. Glamis
N
194 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
was shot through the head, and Crawford taken to the
castle.
The young Earl of Mar had grown jealous of the
authority of his uncle the Master. At six o'clock on
the morning of the 26th of April, he and his two
natural brothers, the commendators of Dryburgh and
Cambuskenneth, came to the gate of Stirling Castle
and called for the keys as though they wished to go
hunting. When the Master arrived to let them out he
was drawn aside by the two commendators, and they
remonstrated with him for having so long retained the
custody of the king and the castle, to which his nephew
had hereditary right. Alexander Erskine made ex-
cuses, but presently he perceived that the business was
serious. He saw that the object of the others was to
seize the king's person, and he reached for a halberd ;
his servants pressed forward to his assistance, and there
was a scuffle and much uproar. Argyll in his chamber
in the castle was aroused, and he came with a few men
to the scene of strife. But he found that all was once
more quiet ; the Master was inclined to compromise,
to yield his possession if the earl would agree to with-
draw in peace. His eldest son had been crushed in
the throng, and died next day of his injuries ; and the
king, awakened from sleep, was in his chamber tearing
his hair in an agony of fear, and crying that he knew
the Master was slain. All present at the fray, includ-
ing Buchanan, wrote an account of the matter to the
council and begged that it might not be noticed.
Argyll, however, departed to levy forces with the
intention of returning within two days ; and the
council, on receipt of the report, "digested hot
humours," and sent Montrose to Stirling to discover
the state of matters, and obtain that there should be
quietness about the king and no change in the arrange-
STIRLING CASTLE 195
ments of his household before the next parliament.
Montrose gave a hopeful account of his visit ; yet the
lords, like Argyll, raised their men in fear of dan-
gerous contingencies, and rode to Stirling, where
they held a council. On the 3rd of May they passed
an ordinance that John, Earl of Mar, should keep
Stirling Castle, and attend on the king and guard him
at the direction of the council, since it was at this
house that James still thought it convenient to reside,
now that he had himself assumed the government of
the country. The conditions laid down when Alex-
ander Erskine undertook the custody were repeated,
with the exception of those which regarded the king's
education. This ruling of the council was confirmed
by an act of parliament later in the year.
The whole incident was regarded generally as a
move of the dispossessed Morton, who had made use
of the jealousy of young Mar. When he had been
relieved of the cares of the regency, Morton had gone
to Lochleven Castle to " make alleys and gardens,"
but it was suspected that he had other interests. At
this time Angus and many friends of the Douglases
held their forces in readiness. Morton himself, how-
ever, when accused at his trial three years later of com-
plicity in the disturbance, replied, " As I sail answer
to God, I knew nothing of it whill it was done." In
1584 the affair figured in the arraignment of Mar for
treason.
It served, in any case, the purposes of Morton. On
the 28th of May he arrived at Stirling where he was
lodged in the castle ; and, already the friend of the
keeper, he contrived to ingratiate himself also with the
king. It was decided to hold a parliament, not in the
tolbooth of Stirling but in the hall of the castle, and
much discontent ensued. There were rumours that the
196 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
king was a prisoner, publicly contradicted by a state-
ment of the council. On the 1 5th of July the king
held in the castle a parliament, which he himself de-
clared to be free and public, and there convened only
because of the ruinous state of the tolbooth. There
had indeed been a hole in the roof of that building in
1571. In 1584, however, the place of this parliament
constituted the second clause in Mar's indictment.
In March 1579 it was declared that, in spite of the
regulation made when the custody of the castle was
granted to the Earl of Mar, persons had come to the
borough of Stirling bearing daggers, pistolets, jacks,
and other weapons, and wearing secret armour. A
proclamation against such action was therefore ordered
at the market cross. On the 1 6th of the month the
council asked the king where he thought good to
reside, and he replied, in Stirling Castle ; and gave his
assurance not to go elsewhere except when in summer
he went for pastime and recreation to the park. An
act of council embodied the decision : the king, when
he wished to hunt or to ride or walk would first give
warning to Mar, and would go accompanied by him and
the household servants and by members of the council.
If ever he desired to go so far that he could not return
to the castle at night, he would first give notice to the
estates, that they might arrange for his convoy and his
residence. Such elaborate precautions were necessary
for the safe keeping of his person.
At this time Peter Young acted as court almoner.
In April he rendered a petition to the king and
council. He stated that a number of poor people
continually thronged the gates of Stirling Castle, and
provided an unpleasant and lamentable spectacle,
which " faschit and inquietit " those who had resort
to his Majesty. Moreover, the course of charity was
STIRLING CASTLE 197
thereby hindered ; for while strong beggars obtained
alms, impotent creatures escaped notice ; and certain
notorious vagabonds who came from Edinburgh and
all parts of the realm convened at Stirling with as
much regularity as though they had been summoned
by proclamation. Unless a remedy were provided
Peter declared himself unable to keep from the king
the hideous sight of the beggars, or to administer to
good purpose the king's alms. The council responded
by an order for an inquiry as to how the strong and
idle beggars might be punished, while the necessitous
were duly succoured.
In June Nau, Queen Mary's secretary, arrived in
Stirling on an embassy to James. His missive was
however addressed " To our sone the Prince of Scot-
land," and because it did not acknowledge James's
sovereignty the ambassador was dismissed without an
audience, and escaped punishment only because he
claimed to hold a license from the Queen of England.
Esme Stewart, lord of Aubigny, came to Scotland
in September, and was received by the king at Stirling
on the 1 5th. "He wes a man of comely proportion,
civil behaviour, read-beardit, honest in conversation,
weil likit of be the king and a part of the nobility at
the first."
On the 29th, in stormy weather, the king at last
left Stirling to visit his capital city.
He returned to the castle in February 1 5 80. There,
in this spring, he conferred on d'Aubigny the earldom
of Lennox which his uncle had resigned. Intrigues
were many in the court : it was said that Lennox
and Argyll wished to take James from the custody
of Mar to Dumbarton Castle, and that Morton had
a design to seize him ; and there was another plot
to persuade him suddenly to go back to Edinburgh.
198 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
The enemies of Mar urged that the earl and his family
and household made a profit of the king's stay in the
castle and squandered his revenues. They urged that
at fourteen years old James should no longer be in
the charge of a private subject. That, however, the
motives of all of them were not disinterested is ren-
dered probable by a paper dated in June of this year,
in which are cited the methods by which the king was
to be induced to suffer his transport to France : he was
to be brought to doubt his security at Stirling, to dis-
like his keepers, and to desire a change in his council.
Lennox was at this time supreme in the kingdom.
In March 1581 the king summoned Stirling Castle,
of which it was suspected that Mar, a chief enemy
of Lennox, was making sure for his own purposes.
In October Mar received at the castle Angus, who
had lately been forfeited by parliament.
Mar was in August 1582 one of the Ruthven
raiders. On the 3Oth he, with Bothwell, Glencairn,
Gowrie, Lindsay, the Master of Oliphant, and some
four hundred men, brought the king, their captive,
to Stirling Castle. The stay of the court was dis-
tinguished by the examination of George Douglas,
accused of part in a plot for maintaining the equal
authority of the king and Queen Mary ; and by a
permission given on the petition of the English am-
bassador Bowes to the exiled Angus to return to
the country.
In 1584 Stirling Castle again came conspicuously
into history. The Ruthven raiders had been over-
thrown ; Arran was pre-eminent in the kingdom. In
April Mar, the abbots of Paisley and Dryburgh, and
certain friends of Angus, seized the castle and town of
Stirling. They were joined by Angus and the Master
of Glamis; and the castle, the bridge, and the gates
STIRLING CASTLE 199
were victualled and placed in a state of defence. The
magistrates of the borough had been taken prisoners.
But on the 2ist Colonel Stewart, with Scotts and
Elliots to the number of about six hundred, and some
fifteen hundred men of Glasgow, marched to Falkirk,
where he met the Master of Livingstone and his forces.
On the same day Angus, Mar, Glamis, and the other
rebel leaders were charged to surrender on pain of
treason.
From the 2Oth to the 24th of April repeated
proclamations enjoined all subjects to assemble with
thirty days' provisions, in order to follow the king to
Stirling. The lords in the castle realised approaching
failure, and fled ; and the magistrates brought the keys
of the town to Stewart at Falkirk. The remainder of
the garrison of the castle, some of them gentlemen,
and some poor soldiers, disagreed ; one party would
have held out until their lives were promised to them,
while others wished to surrender unconditionally. In
the event at the first summons on the 2 7th they
yielded absolutely to Livingstone, save for a few who
leapt from the walls of the castle. Thirty were warded
in the tolbooth. On the 28th a proclamation at the
market cross gave leave to all commons, farmers, mail-
men, unlanded men, burgesses, craftsmen, and inhabi-
tants of boroughs, with the exception of five hundred
men of Edinburgh, to disperse to their homes. Yet
on the 6th of May the forces still with the king
were estimated at 12,000. Alexander Livingstone
was commended for his service, and ordered now to
surrender the castle to Arran.
Retribution followed. Gowrie, a chief of the
disgraced party, was had to Stirling ; and on the
2nd of May he was, with Archibald Douglas and
John Forbes, tried in Lady Mar's lodging and found
200 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
guilty of treason. Douglas and Forbes were hanged
at the market cross ; but Gowrie that same evening,
beneath the castle wall, " uttered his harangue with
ane guid countenance and in guid language and with
ane humble spirit ; " and then was beheaded.
All who had taken part with the rebels, or who
had rendered help to them, were likewise declared
guilty of treason. Yet of the garrison of the castle
only four, of whom two were Douglases, were eventu-
ally brought to the sciaffold. Within the year occurred
the forfeiture, in which figured this occupation of the
castle, of John, Earl of Mar, Agnes Drummond his
countess, and Dame Annabel his mother.
It was at Stirling also that the next move in this
game of Scottish politics was played. The disgraced
lords were exiles in England, but with English help
they organised a movement which left James practi-
cally unsupported. He was in the late autumn of
1585 at Stirling Castle. Douglases, Hamiltons, and
Maxwells marched northwards from the border ; the
Master of Gray was raising Fife with the secret inten-
tion of seizing Perth. Behind the actions of the
opposing parties there was the ancient antagonism
between the English and the French factions in Scot-
land ; but there was also a modern force, the power
of the men attached to the reformed polity of the
church, the " godly," who all supported the exiled lords
and seconded the influence of Elizabeth's ministers.
Arran heard of the advance of the exiles, and went
to Stirling to inform the king. Gray was summoned
to court, but persuaded James of his innocence. Then
came the news of the imminence of the danger. The
lords had joined forces at Torwood ; on the ist of
November, some three or four thousand strong, they
pitched their camp at St. Ninian's chapel within one
STIRLING CASTLE 201
mile of Stirling town, and all that night they stood
prepared for attack. Throughout the night Arran,
with Montrose, kept watch from the walls of the
borough ; but with the morning he made good an
escape, and the rest of the court party took refuge
within the castle.
At dawn the exiled lords entered the town at
various points : so little resistance was offered that
only three or four persons were slain in all. Many
townsmen joined the invading party. The " sincerest
professors " had published a motion to abstain from
all unnecessary effusion of blood ; and the occupa-
tion of the town appears to have been on the whole
orderly. Yet there was a " great reif of horse and
guids by William Kinmonthe and his bairns." The
castle was besieged : the ensigns of the lords were
planted before it, and only sufficient food for the
king's table was suffered to enter. It was not
victualled, and very soon James caused the white flag
to be raised and offered to surrender on condition
his life, honour, and estate were preserved ; the lives
of Montrose, Crawford, and Colonel Stewart spared ;
and all matters transacted in peace. The lords
agreed to the first and last clauses, but as to the other
they replied that the persons named had troubled
the country and must be delivered to justice. They
in turn asked the king to grant that the abuses and
corruptions which through abusers of authority had
crept into the kirk and commonweal should be
reformed. In pledge they requested that he would
deliver to them the castles and strong places, as well
as the persons of the troublers of the estate. The
latter were to be committed to justice; and they
desired further that the royal guard should be changed
and its captain chosen by themselves.
202 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
The king was in no position to dictate terms. In
the evening of the 4th of November the gates of the
castle were thrown open, and the lords, barons, and
gentlemen in great numbers entered, and came into
the royal presence. They protested their loyalty and
their innocence of all evil intent ; and James told them
that where weapons had spoken so loudly there was
no need for words. He added discreetly a confession
that his confidence had been too long abused, that the
mighty hand of God had brought them thus blood-
lessly ; and he concluded with words of welcome.
Montrose and Crawford prepared to depart when first,
owing to the existence of particular enmities, security
had been taken between Angus and Montrose and
between Crawford and the Master of Glamis. Mar
was restored to his ancient keepership of the castle,
which with his other dignities he had lost in the
previous year ; and a new guard was appointed, of
whom the Master of Glamis became captain. On the
9th the court left Stirling for Linlithgow.
Walsingham some weeks later received news of a
report that during the siege James had done his best
to bribe William Maxwell of Newark to suffer him to
escape through a secret postern of the castle.
On the ist of August 1588 it was ordered, among
other preparations for resistance to the great Armada,
that a bale should be burnt and a watch kept on the
rock of Stirling Castle.
In 1593, on the 2yth of December, the king with
the queen came to Stirling, where it had been decided
that the queen's confinement should take place. The
castle was undergoing repair, and until such was
completed the court were lodged first at Argyll's
house and then at Lady Mar's lodging. In the king's
chamber in the castle, between three and four o'clock
STIRLING CASTLE 203
on the morning of the i9th of February 1594, a
prince was born, to the great joy of all subjects, who
made manifest their pleasure by many bonfires and by
dancing and playing, " as gif the pepill had been daft
for mirth." Puritanism does not seem yet to have
had a great effect on manners.
The baptism took place at Stirling in September ;
and the chapel royal is said to have been rebuilt in
preparation for the event. The existing chapel dates
indeed from this reign, and at the time of the baptism
it was in a state to allow of the rite ; but it is impos-
sible that its demolition and its rebuilding should
have been accomplished in a few months. In August
the ambassadors of sundry princes and commonwealths,
sent to be present at the ceremony, were assembled in
the borough. A proclamation was ordered at the
market cross for their friendly and courteous enter-
tainment by all noblemen, gentlemen, and others,
who must to such end retain in their company only
the discreet, the courteous, the well inclined, and the
honest.
The prince, on the 4th of September, was carried
from his chamber to the chapel by Suffolk and
Bowes, the English ambassadors. A sermon was
preached by Patrick Galloway ; and then the baptismal
rite was performed by David Cunningham, Bishop of
Aberdeen, who afterwards delivered a Latin oration.
Four or five days later the ambassadors of Denmark,
the Empire, Flanders, and England took their leave of
the king, who gave to each a gold chain. Of them all
the Flemings had made the most valuable present to
the prince ; the English had given a cupboard richly
wrought.
For the last time Stirling Castle now became the
residence of a minor prince, Henry, the heir to the
204 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
throne. He did not escape the lot of his kind :
throughout 1595 there was strife between Mar and
Maitland ; and it is said that the queen, with Maitland
and with Cessford and Buccleuch, entertained a plot
for removing her son from Mar's custody by the time-
honoured expedient of kidnapping. In 1600 the
privy council decreed that when the king was not
at Stirling no earl might enter the castle with more
than four persons in his train, no lord with more than
two, no baron with more than one, and no other
person who had any escort. None might carry any
weapons into the castle, except earls, lords, and barons,
who might retain their swords. The execution of this
order was entrusted to John, Earl of Mar, as keeper
of the castle and the prince.
On various' occasions in these last years before his
departure to England James VI. was at Stirling. In
1598 he made a banquet at the castle to his brother-
in-law, the Duke of Holstein, and there were great
drinking and many pastimes, and a presentation of
rich gifts.
In May 1603 Mar received a discharge for his
custody of the prince, and was ordered to deliver him
to Lennox. At Windsor, in July, certain of the
Scottish council exonerated the earl for all the offences
with which the queen had charged him.
In the years which elapsed before the king's next
visit to Scotland, Stirling Castle was the prison in
1606 of some of the ministers who held the general
assembly of Aberdeen. From 1608 to 1610 it was
that of Huntly.
A commission was granted in April 1616 to the
Bishop of Galloway. He stated that the king had
ratified the ancient foundation of the chapel in so far
as concerned the ordering of the music and in other
STIRLING CASTLE 205
respects not repugnant to true religion ; but of those
who served the chapel some were ignorant of the art
and science of music, and others had deserted their
charge. The bishop therefore, with certain associates,
was ordered to hold one or more courts, at which all
who pretended to be beneficiaries of the chapel must
be examined as to their ability and further qualifica-
tions, their residence and their discharge of their duties.
Such as stood the test were to be urged to take oath
to the authority of the king and of the bishop as ordi-
nary, and to find caution for their residence at Stirling
or Holy rood ; and the unfit were to be deprived.
In May there were further preparations for the
king's visit in the next year. The master of the
works was ordered to demolish the old entry between
the outer and inner gates of the castle and the little
room on either side of it, and to use the stones for
repairs. The roof of the king's kitchen, the court to
the west of it, the bakehouse and brewery, and the
roof of the tower above the inner gate, were to be taken
down and made again. James was at Stirling Castle
from the 3Oth of June to the 3rd of July 1617. He
was received at his entry into the town by Robert
Murray, commissary of Stirling ; and two hexameter
poems were presented to him.
In the succeeding years there were issued ordi-
nances, in expectation of royal visits, as to the pre-
.servation of game, as to the evacuation of the park
and castle, as to repairs, and as to the entertainment
of the royal train. All the directions were like those
concerned with other palaces. The master of the
works was instructed in 1625 to mend, and where
necessary to renew, the roof of the great hall of the
castle, of the two great box windows, of the chapel,
the west gallery of the new work between the kings'
206 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
and the queen's quarters, and the toofalls on the east
side of the new work above the king's cabinet. He
was ordered to build up the stonework of a great
part of the foundation of the west quarter which was
above the barres, and to raise to a height of three feet
all the bartisene of that quarter which had fallen
down. The long wall on the north side of the garden
and chapel was to be mended ; and the wall along and
down the craig, and in front of the outer gate by which
the deer were enclosed, to be repaired. In 1626 Sir
Harry Bruce visited the castle in order to examine its
munition. Charles I. was at Stirling Castle in June
1633-
From the date of the outbreak of the Civil War
until modern times Stirling Castle has been dis-
tinguished not as a residence of kings but as a strong-
hold and a garrison. Its history came to be again, as
it had been in the Middle Ages, a military history.
Its strategic importance was realised by the Cove-
nanting party. They were keeping in 1638 a strict
watch upon it ; and Mar could obtain provision for
it only by their leave. In 1 640 it was enacted in
parliament that this castle, and those of Edinburgh
and Dumbarton, might be entrusted only to natives of
Scotland who were of proved worth. No charge or
service in them was to be committed to any who
had not taken an oath of fidelity, to be kept on pain
of all rigorous punishments applicable to traitors.
The captains and commanders of the castles were to
be chosen by the king and parliament, or in the inter-
vals of parliamentary sessions by the council, pending
a ratification by parliament. A saving clause recog-
nised the hereditary right of the Earl of Mar to the
keepership. In 1642 the keepership and captaincy of
Stirling were granted anew by the king to John, Lord
STIRLING CASTLE 207
Erskine, the son and heir of Mar, in tail male. Such
act had the effect of a settlement. The park, meadow,
gardens, butts, and Gallowhills were included in the
custody bestowed ; and the keepers had a right to
pasture in the park six mares and their foals of two
years. In April 1644 a certain Captain John Wallace
was, with the consent of Mar, appointed to command
a garrison which should remain in the castle until the
restoration of peace. He was, however, sent to
Ireland later in the year ; and it was ordained there-
after that Mar should, with the consent of parliament,
appoint a garrison 'of a number approved by the
estates or their committee, for which he and his son
Lord Erskine should be answerable. This garrison
was to remain in the castle only until the time of
troubles had passed. The force to be employed at
Stirling was specified next year as three hundred foot,
and a troop of horse ; and the castle was one of the
places assigned as magazines for victuals, ammunition,
and arms. From 1644 until 1647 the garrison was
under the charge of Colonel John Cockburn. He
had, at least during part of this time, the custody of
certain objects of the regalia ; and he entertained some
prisoners and gentlemen of fortune. In 1649, in spite
of his " honest carriage," he had not received the ^200
a month due for his expenses and remuneration. It
does not appear that he still held office in March of
that year, when a mutiny occurred. Major Holburne
arrived at Stirling to find that the four companies of
the garrison had disarmed their officers, and held the
castle. After some parley he obtained admittance,
and then distributed a month's pay, and dismissed
three companies. He wrote to Argyll to beg that a
troop of horse might be sent to his aid, since he could
not trust the remnant of the garrison, corrupted by
208 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
malignants ; and parliament on Argyll's representation
appointed Major Strachan's troop to be quartered near
the castle.
Charles II. was at Stirling Castle in July 1650. In
December of that year, when Edinburgh Castle sur-
rendered to Cromwell, the public records of the
kingdom and other national possessions, as well as
certain private documents, were in accordance with the
articles of surrender transferred to the castle of
Stirling.
In March 1651 the officers of the garrison rendered
a petition to the committee of military affairs. They
had, they stated, during the seven months for which
they had been at the castle received only four months'
pay. The soldiers had sometimes been obliged to make
four days' allowance of food suffice for a week, and
were almost destitute of clothing ; and, hardily bred
though they were, some had been so little defended
against the cold that they had died on duty. The
petitioners declared themselves sensible of the great
straits to which the kingdom was reduced, and its
inability to bear a great burden ; and asked only for
necessaries. In response parliament earnestly recom-
mended the committee to discharge the arrears of pay.
It is not surprising, in view of the miseries of the
garrison, that in August 1651 the castle surrendered
to Monk. The governor ineffectually attempted to
stipulate that the records might be conveyed else-
where in Scotland : they were sent soon afterwards to
the Tower of London. The more private of them
were in 1657 returned to Edinburgh Castle, and are
now in the General Register House in Edinburgh.
The others were shipped back to Scotland after the
Restoration, and many of them were lost at sea.
The parliament at Westminster received on the
STIRLING CASTLE 209
30th of August the news of the taking of this castle,
in which were, as well as the records, forty pieces of
ordnance, five thousand arms, and provision and
ammunition ; and they appointed the following
Sunday to be a day of thanksgiving. In 1654 the
council ordered the delivery, for the use of His High-
ness the Protector, of the wardrobe goods which had
come from Scotland at the capture of Stirling. They
were two rich canopies, three chairs of state, a foot-
stool, six high stools, crimson velvet furniture for a
bed, and divers silk curtains.
The rights of the Erskines of Mar were over-
ridden by the Protector. In 1652 the park of Stirling,
the meadow called the Garden Butts, and Gallowhills,
were granted to James Drummond, brother germain
to David Drummond of Invermay, and his heirs and
assigns. All fees and duties which pertained to the
keepership of the castle and park were conferred in
January 1653 on James Stevenson, merchant burgess
of Stirling ; and on James Keir and Andrew Buchanan,
merchant burgesses of that place and masters of the
Over Hospital in the borough.
The castle in July 1657 had a garrison of two
companies. Monk, in his scheme for the defence of
Scotland, advanced in October of that year, suggested
that thirteen companies of foot and a regiment of
horse should be stationed at Stirling.
After the Restoration, in 1661, the governorship
and captaincy of the castle were regranted by parlia-
ment to John, Earl of Mar, in tail male, together with
the forestership of the park. A parliamentary ratifi-
cation of his hereditary right to the keepership was
received by Charles, Earl of Mar, in 1685.
The garrison of the castle continued to be impor-
tant. There were in 1661 a company of foot in the
o
210 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
town ; but in consequence of a " tumult and scuffling "
between the townspeople and soldiery their removal to
the castle was ordered, and it was decreed that guards
should no longer be set in the town. The company
had probably been stationed in fear of opposition to
the Restoration. In 1664, the captain of the castle
was directed to quarter, in accordance with advice
of the commissioners of excise in the shire, parties of
soldiers on delinquents indicated by the collectors of
excise.
No resistance was offered by Stirling Castle to the
revolutionaries of 1689. The committee for securing
the peace ruled in that year that the condition of the
castle should be considered, and recommended to Mar
to send for Lieutenant-Colonel Middleton, who should
give an account of it. It contained at this date a
considerable magazine of arms and ammunition. In
March the convention of estates which met in Edin-
burgh confirmed to Mar, in order to remedy certain
encroachments made on his rights by Middleton, the
command of all officers and soldiers in the garrison,
and the fees, privileges, and emoluments which
belonged to his office. Further this assembly or-
dained, on the advice of General Mackay, that the
whole park of Stirling should be enclosed and kept
for the use of the forces, and they commanded an
estimate to be made of the cost of necessary repairs to
the castle. Repairs had been executed before 1695.
In June 1689 the convention gave thanks to Mar for
his care of the castle.
Robert Sibbald in 1693 described Stirling Castle as
one of the chief magazines of the kingdom, and as
furnished with cannon and other warlike provisions. In
the reign of Anne certain batteries were built in con-
nection with the defence of the outer gate. They have
STIRLING CASTLE 211
walls of great thickness, provided on the top with
embrasures for guns ; and the parapet is of earthwork
covered by turf. The guns are worked from broad
platforms supported on arches. These works are of
an English type, reproduced elsewhere north of the
Tweed only at Berwick-on-Tweed. They have the
watch-turrets or stone sentry-boxes peculiar to the
period, which are also at Edinburgh Castle.
When in 1715 the Earl of Mar was leading the
Jacobite insurrection in the Highlands, the Duke of
Argyll came to Stirling ; and he remained there in
command of the Hanoverian army until he marched to
Sheriffmuir. The rising was followed by the depriva-
tion of Mar, and since that event there has not been a
hereditary keeper of the castle. Lieutenant and deputy
governors have been appointed as vacancies have arisen
in their offices.
In the 'Forty-five, when the strength of the High-
lands was so important a factor in the determination of
fortunes, Stirling had much significance in its character
of a border fortress.
On the 1 9th of August 1745 General Cope
arrived at Stirling : he assembled his army and marched
northwards next day. The castle was strongly garri-
soned by the government. The prince crossed the
Forth on the I3th of September and encamped at a
short distance from the town. On the morrow he
marched past the castle whence some guns were fired,
which however did not even discompose the High-
landers in the Jacobite army, although to them the
booming of cannon was a novel sound.
Early in 1746 the prince undertook the reduction
of Stirling Castle. The town was summoned on the
6th of January, and although it made some show of
defence it capitulated on the 8th, when a battery of a
212 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
few field-pieces had been erected and had opened fire.
General Blakeney, who commanded the defence, then
retired to the castle. To the summons of the prince
he sent answer that his royal highness must think
very badly of him did he believe him capable of so
cowardly a surrender. Siege operations were therefore
begun. The direction of the works was entrusted to
a French engineer, Mirabelle de Gordon, who, accord-
ing to the Chevalier de Johnstone, had a very slight
knowledge of his science, and was " totally desti-
tute of judgement, discernment, and common sense."
Another writer states that he was always drunk ;
and a third that he understood his business, but
was so volatile that he could not be trusted. His
whimsical appearance earned him from the High-
landers the nickname of Mr. Admirable. Grant, the
chief of artillery, suggested to the prince to open
trenches and set up batteries on the burying ground,
which was on that side of the town opposite to the
castle gate, where they might be placed almost on the
same plane as the guns of the enemy. But to this
course the burghers objected because it risked the
destruction of their town ; and Mirabelle brought
forward a more popular plan : he undertook to reduce
the castle from the hill on its north side. In this
place he therefore began his works, and the enterprise
was laborious and protracted, both because the defi-
ciency of the soil had to be artificially supplied, and
because the men at work were exposed to the castle's
fire. Twenty-five of them were sometimes lost in
a day.
While on the i7th of January Charles Edward
and his army were absent at Falkirk fight, the Duke
of Perth commanded the siege operations. The
prince after his victory did not follow up his advan-
STIRLING CASTLE 213
tage, but chose rather to continue the siege, which
Mirabelle now swore would be ended in four hours'
time. Yet the work on the trenches went on until the
end of the month. At last, on the 3Oth, the battery
was unmasked. But, as Blakeney must all along
have known, it was commanded by the castle ; and in
less than half-an-hour it had been forcibly abandoned.
On the same day news arrived that Cumberland was in
Edinburgh : the Jacobite army, demoralised by its long
stay in Stirling, was in no state to meet him, and the
prince was with difficulty persuaded to avoid a battle,
and marched precipitately northwards towards Inver-
ness. Of all attempts to besiege Stirling Castle this
of Charles Edward is the most futile.
Cumberland, who had been preceded by the van
of his army, reached Stirling on the 2nd of February.
He was at Dunblane on the 4th. On the I5th, in
order to prevent the Highlanders from slipping past
Stirling, he ordered the Hessians to march thither
and to Perth, and sent two regiments of cavalry to
Bannockburn.
This is the last occasion on which Stirling Castle
figured in history. Thenceforth it has been only a
barracks and a national memorial.
The palace is built round a quadrangle, and forms
one side of an inner courtyard surrounded by build-
ings. Outside these is another court enclosed by
a wall, to the north and south of which are outlying
precincts also surrounded by walls.
The most ancient part of the existing building is
on the highest point of the site, at the north-west
angle of the inner courtyard. It was part of "the
old hall and the old chambers on the west side of
the old close," which were probably the castle of the
fourteenth century. The buildings now in this place
2i4 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
are modern, among them the Douglas room, in which
the earl is popularly believed to have been slain by
James II. The north-west postern, however, and its
steep vaulted passage are of very early date.
The parliament hall, built by James III., occupies
the eastern side of the inner court. It measures 125
by 36 1 feet, and, like English halls of the period, has
at the south or da'fs end two oriel windows. These
are roofed with groined vaulting still preserved in the
west window. The entrance is from the inner court-
yard and level with it ; but a lower story is on the
same plane as the outer court beyond the eastern wall.
It is vaulted, and contains a number of rooms once
kitchens, guard-rooms, and offices. On the east side
a turret stair leads to the hall and beyond it to the
roof. On the face of the outer wall the mutilated
canopied niches, placed on the windows and robbed
of the statues which they once contained, can still be
seen. The hall had originally a roof of fine open
timber work, but this was removed, probably early in
the nineteenth century, and replaced by a modern
roof. At the same time floors, partition walls, and
staircases were introduced, in order to make of this
beautiful structure a modern barracks.
The wall around the outer courtyard is also
attributed to James III. Its gateway, the chief entrance
to the castle, is popularly assigned to the Norman
period : but its style is that of the hall ; and the
details already given prove that James IV. was the
builder of the " fore yett " or " fore entry " with its
" great portcullis." The two round towers on either
side of the gateway had formerly projecting parapets
supported by corbels, and were surmounted by smaller
turrets with conical roofs.
The palace erected by James IV. and James V.
STIRLING CASTLE 215
forms the southern side of the inner courtyard, and
is of the usual type of castles of this period. The
quadrangle around which it is built is called " the
Lions' den " ; evidently because it held the lion-house
of James IV. As is usual in houses of this pattern,
the principal rooms of the palace are on the first
floor. The entrance is at the south-west corner of
the inner courtyard of the castle ; and a porch gives
access to a large reception room and an audience
chamber which occupy the north side of the quadrangle.
On its east side are private rooms, and on its south
side more private reception rooms, perhaps a with-
drawingroom and a diningroom. Along the west
side of the quadrangle is a corridor which connects
the porch with the drawingroom. There was evi-
dently an unfulfilled design to construct along it
western rooms. The square tower attached to the
south side of the palace is of older date than the rest
of the structure, and may once have been the angle
tower at the south-west corner of the castle wall.
There are on the ground floor of the palace vaulted
rooms, which were kitchens, cellars, and offices. Above
the chief rooms is an upper story. This was originally
lit by dormer windows behind the parapet ; but in
several cases disfiguring windows have been cut through
the wall.
The interior of the palace was richly decorated,
but there remain to give evidence of its ornament
only the mutilated fireplaces. Certain carved oak
panels, on which were represented the heads of Wal-
lace, Bruce, and other personages, were removed in
1777 ; but some of them have been preserved in the
Smithsonian Institute in Stirling and in the Antiquarian
Museum in Edinburgh.
The exterior decoration of the palace is said to be
216 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
the earliest example of Renascence work in Scotland.
The designs are rich and fantastic, and betray the
hand of the French craftsmen known to have been
employed.
The chapel built by James VI. occupies the north
side of the inner courtyard, and is an example of the
fully completed Renascence work of the period. The
comparatively modern buildings on the west side of
the courtyard are uninteresting.
Around the castle are various places of which the
names recall the ancient use. The Mote Hill to
the north was probably once the site of assemblies
of state ; in later times it is said that executions were
held there. On the Ladies' Rock, according to tradi-
tion, the ladies of the court were wont to station
themselves, in order to watch the joustings in the flat-
bottomed hollow between it and the castle rock. The
hollow is now called the Valley, and is partly occupied
by the cemetery. In the grassgrown royal gardens,
to the south-west of the Ladies' Rock, some traces of a
canal and of terraces have been discovered. To the
south-west of the gardens is an octagonal earthen
mound, with terraces, and a depressed centre, known
as the King's Knot. This is identified as the Table
Round, where the Scottish kings and their court played
the game of Arthur's knights. It is mentioned by
Barbour in the fourteenth century. The King's Park
is beyond the Knot, and is now used as a drill ground
and a public park. Along the north-east side of the
castle rock is the deep hollow called Ballingeich ; and
beyond it Gowling, or Gowan Hill, where Mirabelle
placed his batteries.
From the summit of their solitary rock the ram-
parts and towers of the castle command a wonderful
scene. On one side is a wide fertile plain, which
STIRLING CASTLE 217
stretches to the low and distant hills of Fife and the
Lothians, and through which the silvery Forth follows
a winding course, "a silvery entanglement of loops
and links." And on the other side the castle looks
out on the Highlands and an undulating country of
hills dark with pine trees, backed by a semicircle of
mountains which sweeps round from the north to the
west. The blue peaks reach up into the clouds, and
extend beyond the limits of sight.
(Jhfoce
THE site of Falkland Palace has a history as
early, or nearly so, as the castles of Edin-
burgh and Stirling. Yet it differs markedly
in position from both those houses. It is in
the most inland part of the sea-bound county of Fife,
and far from any great river. It stands, not on a high
place whence the surrounding country can be com-
manded, but at the base of hills. The East Lomond
rises to some 1500 feet immediately to the south of
the palace ; the other hills of the Lomond range extend
out into the blue distances southwards and westwards,
and there are low hills to the north and to the south-
east. On the north-east is the valley of the Eden and
the fertile Howe of Fife. This situation explains the
brevity of Falkland's period of military importance,
and it was the nature of the site which made so easy
the conversion of the fortress into a palace.
The foundations of the fourteenth-century castle,
discovered to the north-east of the palace by the late
Lord Bute, probably mark the place of an earlier
structure within the precincts, a fortress held between
1107 and 1124, in the reign of Alexander I., by
" Macbeath Thaynetus de Falkland," who was a per-
ambulator of the marches between Kyrkness and
Lochore. His title makes it clear that Falkland was
the central place of his territory ; and it follows, at
this period, that he had in it a stronghold. Soon
218
FALKLAND PALACE 219
afterwards Falkland became crown property. It was
held by Malcolm IV., who reigned from 1153 to
1165. His niece, Ada, married at Edinburgh in
1159-60 Duncan Macduff, Earl of Fife, who had
been the king's guardian. For when in 1152 Henry,
the only son of David I., "a youth of comely mien,"
died " before he had completed the years of the first
bloom of youth," his father took Malcolm, his son's
firstborn, and gave to him as governor Duncan, Earl
of Fife, who was directed to take him about the
country of Scotland with an army, and proclaim him
heir to the throne. Malcolm, as king, gave Falkland
as part of his niece's dower to Duncan. Thus the
property became an appendage of the earldom of Fife.
Earl Duncan was in 1174 one of the nobles who
agreed to the convention made at Falaise with Henry II.
He died in 1203, and was succeeded by his son
Malcolm, who married Matilda, daughter of Gilbert,
Earl of Strathearn. In 1228 he died childless, and
his estates and dignities were inherited by his nephew
Malcolm, the son of his brother Duncan and of Alice,
daughter to Walter Corbert of Makerstoun. Malcolm
was a guarantor of treaties with England in 1237 and
in 1244. In 1255 he was a guardian of the realm;
and Andrew of Wyntoun calls him the " gud erl."
He married Helen, daughter of Llewellyn, the Prince
of Wales, and died in 1266. His successor was his
son Colbran or Colban, who had been knighted by
Alexander III. in 1264 and who died in 1270. The
son Duncan, whom Colban left as heir, was at the
time of his father's death only eight years old, and was
not admitted to possession of the earldom until 1284.
During the interregnum which followed next year on
the death of Alexander III., he was elected one of the
six guardians of the kingdom. He married an English
220 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
wife, Johanna, the daughter of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of
Gloucester. His death resulted on a quarrel concern-
ing certain lands of Fife, those of Kilconquhar, which
were claimed by members of the family of Abernethy.
On the 7th of April 1288 Patrick of Abernethy and
Walter Percy, knights, with many men, waylaid Earl
Duncan near Petpolloch and slew him. William of
Abernethy, also a knight, had lain in ambush on
another road by which it was possible that the earl
might pass. The murderers were pursued by Andrew
of Moray. At Colbanston in Clydesdale Walter and
William were caught, and Walter with two esquires
was immediately put to death, while William was
imprisoned for life in Douglas Castle. Patrick escaped
to France where he ended his days. The dispute as
to the lands of Kilconquhar was continued by Duncan's
brother, and its sequel, an appeal to Edward I., was
instrumental in the overthrow of John Balliol.
Another Duncan, son of the last earl, succeeded
to the earldom in 1288, when he was only three years
old. Yet, according to one chronicler, he fought and
was slain ten years later at the battle of Falkirk, and
his loss and that of his followers is said to have been
very grievous to the king. It is possible that this
story is erroneous, and that only one Earl Duncan
held from 1288 to 1353. Duncan, Earl of Fife, was
in 1320 a signatory of the letter in which the case
of the Scots against England was submitted to the
pope. In 1332 he was taken prisoner at the battle
of Dupplin, and three hundred and sixty men-at-arms
who fought under his banner are said to have been
slain. Thereafter he submitted to Edward Balliol,
and he became warden of Perth in Balliol 's interest.
With his wife and daughter he was taken prisoner
when this place was captured by James and Simon
Fraser. His wife was Mary, the daughter of Ralph,
FALKLAND PALACE 221
Lord Monthermer, and of Joan Plantagenet, dowager
Countess of Gloucester. On the 24th of September
1332, Earl Duncan, the Bishop of Dunkeld, and their
abettors crowned Edward Balliol at Scone. Soon
afterwards, however, the earl joined the party of David
Bruce. His " tower of Falkland " was in the tenure
of the English, presumably in consequence of his
defection; but in February 1337 he, with Andrew
of Moray, the Earl of March, William of Douglas,
and many other nobles, " took and demolished " it,
and razed it to the ground. Use was made in the
siege of a piece of artillery called a " bostour," and
fashioned like a tower of wood, which had such
powers both of undermining a fortification and of
attacking it from above that no building of the day
could withstand it. The capturers of Falkland plun-
dered the surrounding country, took the inhabitants
prisoners, and placed ransoms on them. They then
proceeded to St. Andrews. Duncan, in 1346, was
one of the four earls who were taken prisoners with
King David at the battle of Durham. He was con-
demned by the English as a traitor, but subsequently
pardoned, and he died in Scotland in 1353.
He left no son, but was succeeded by a daughter,
Isabel, who married four short-lived husbands, each of
whom was, in her right, called Earl of Fife. They
were : William Ramsay of Colluthie, who died soon
after 1359; Walter Stewart, second son of King
Robert II., who was her husband in 1362 ; Sir Thomas
Byset of Upsetlington, who died before 1365 ; and
John de Dunbar, who was dead in 1371. She had by
none of them any children who survived her, and in
1371 she acknowledged as her heir Robert Stewart,
Earl of Menteith, the king's son and the brother of
her second husband. She granted to him then the
keeping of the castle of Falkland and of its forest, and
222 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
the right to place in it a constable, as he pleased ; but
she reserved to herself liberty to stay when she would
in the tower, while the earl had lodging and accom-
modation in it for himself and his horses whenever he
came to Falkland.
Thus there was a forest of Falkland, and the castle
had been rebuilt after 1337. The reserving clause
indicates that it had been a residence of the earls of
Fife, and as such it was certainly used by Robert, the
new earl, who dated several charters from his " manor "
or his " castle " of Falkland. He was a very pro-
minent figure in Scottish history. In 1388, in his
father's lifetime, he was made guardian of the realm ;
and he governed Scotland during the first eight years
of the reign of his brother, the feeble Robert III. In
1398 he was created Duke of Albany : the title was new
to Scotland, and conferred on him a position of gran-
deur shared only by his nephew, the heir to the throne,
David, now Duke of Rothesay. This dissolute and
reckless prince superseded his uncle as guardian of the
realm in 1 399. The two were rivals, and therefore no ab-
sence of motive renders incredible the sinister tales con-
cerning Rothesay's death told by the chroniclers, and,
at a later date, by Scott in " The Fair Maid of Perth."
The prince, in 1402, had lost his two chief sup-
porters by the death of Archibald the Grim, third
Earl of Douglas, and of Walter Traill, Bishop of St.
Andrews. He determined to occupy the castle of
St. Andrews, left vacant by Traill's death, and set out
to ride thither with a few attendants. When he had
reached Strathtyrum, near the town, he was surprised
and captured, and taken as a prisoner to the castle of
St. Andrews. There is no doubt that Albany, and
Archibald, the young Earl of Douglas, were responsible
for his seizure ; and the chronicler of Pluscarden, who
FALKLAND PALACE 223
wrote some sixty years later, relates further that after
that event they held a council at Culross, and decided
on his death. Subsequently he was conveyed to
Albany's castle of Falkland, clad in a grey jerkin,
" after the manner of a varlet," and mounted on a small
pack-horse, that he might attract no notice by the
way. There he was given into the charge of John
Wright and John Selkirk, who confined him in a little
vault in the tower until he died on the 7th of April.
Professedly his death was due to dysentery, but by
rumour it was ascribed to starvation. That suspicion
rested on Albany and Douglas immediately after the
occurrence, is proved by the fact that they were
acquitted of any attempt to murder Rothesay, in a
parliament held at Holyrood. Only the bare facts of
the capture of the prince, his imprisonment, and his
death at Falkland are, however, attested. He was
buried at the abbey of Lindores. There is no founda-
tion for the tradition which has associated a room in
the existing palace with his imprisonment. He was
confined not in the palace, which had not yet been
built, but in the ancient castle of the earls.
If Albany conspired to kill the prince in order to
regain the first place in the kingdom, he achieved his
object ; for he recovered his supremacy, and after the
death of Robert III. in 1406, he was appointed regent.
In 1420 he died, and the regency, as well as Falkland
Castle, passed to his feeble son, Duke Murdoch. In
1424, James I. returned to Scotland, and entered on
his stern policy of repressing the nobles. In pur-
suance of it, at a parliament held at Perth in the
following year, he caused the arrest of Murdoch ; and
thereafter he "incontinently" sent to seize the castle
of Falkland, and gave it into the same keeping as that
of St. Andrews.
224 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
It thus became a royal possession : the exchequer
roll of next year records a payment for two pairs of
cart-wheels sent to it for the king's use. Later, how-
ever, it was held by Walter Stewart, Earl of Athol.
This was a grandson of Robert II. by his second wife,
and if, as in the opinion of some, Robert's children by
Elizabeth Mure were illegitimate, he was the rightful
king of Scotland. James, to conciliate Athol, bestowed
on him honours, among others the sheriffdom of Fife,
to which Falkland Castle must have been appendant.
At the earl's forfeiture for his part in the king's mur-
der, the castle reverted to the crown ; it was appro-
priated to the kings with the earldom of Fife in the
parliament of 1455 5 an<^ their tenure of it has since
been affected only by the temporary result of a grant
by Cromwell and by a late process of delegation. The
keepership of the palace was held for long in con-
junction with the stewartry and chamberlainry of Fife,
a result of its ancient connection with the earldom.
The palace, as distinct from the tower or castle,
is generally said to have been built by James III.,
James IV., and James V. There is little doubt, how-
ever, that the work was begun by James II. He was
at Falkland in October 1446; and from 1445 to
1453 much money was there spent on building.
Stone, iron, lead, boards, rosewood, wax, and canubium
were brought to the king's manor of Falkland ; the
stables and other buildings in the close were repaired ;
in 1453 the kitchen was roofed. Payments were made
in this reign to the gardener, to the keeper of the
park for his maintenance of the palings, to those who
mowed and cut the hay.
The king married Mary of Gueldres in 1449 ;
and in 1451 he granted to her in parliament the
county of Fife and its tenants, and the manor or
FALKLAND PALACE 225
castle of Falkland, with the park and appurtenant
lands. The gift was in fulfilment of the marriage-
contract, which assigned to the queen for life, property
in Scotland to the value of £5000.
In 1452 the king and queen and the court spent
the months of February and March at Falkland,
Their daughter, the Lady Mary, rested there on the
9th and the loth of May, as she was on her way from
Stirling to St. Andrews. James II. was again at the
palace in April 1458 ; and the chancellor and comp-
troller stayed in it on several occasions in this reign,
often for the purpose of letting the lands of Fife.
Under James II. there is first mention of the
practice of keeping horses at Falkland. From Sep-
tember 1450 until the following July, between forty
and fifty horses of the king were there, in the charge
of ten or twelve men and some boys ; and in July
six men and four boys kept there certain of the queen's
horses. Such references are numerous until the middle
of the next century. In 1496 bowmen received wages
for guarding the king's horses at Falkland; in 1503
his mares and coursers had been brought thither from
Tor Wood ; and in 1525 a fee was paid to the keeper
of the mares and their followers in the park. Not
only were horses thus maintained at grass; but there
are also such frequent allusions to building in con-
nection with the stables of the palace, that these were
evidently important.
In 1453 wages were paid to the youths of the
chapel of Falkland, probably the choristers. This
is the only documentary evidence that a chapel existed
there in the fifteenth century. It may have occupied
the site of that built by James IV.
We hear in the last years of James II. of brewing
and the making of malt at Falkland ; in 1459 the hall,
p
226 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
the chambers, the kitchen, the brewery, the bakehouse,
and the counting-house of the palace had been repaired
at a cost of ^51, i8s. *jd.
Mary of Gueldres, in the year after her husband's
death, undertook considerable improvements in her
palace of Falkland. A pleasure garden was made,
from which a new door led into her chamber ; a
brewhouse was built ; a new chamber received locks,
window-panes, an aumbry, and other additions ; the
roofs of the tower and of other buildings of the palace,
and divers chambers were repaired. In the counting-
house, which was on the west side of the palace, a
chimney, a door, and partition walls were made ; the
chimney in the hall was mended ; a lock was affixed
to the door of the wardrobe ; and a door-key pro-
cured for the great chamber. A coal-house was built,
and, between the palace gates, a new stable. There
is mention of the eastern and western gates in 1452.
The gate of the hay-yard and its lock were mended ;
and two new ponds in it were cleansed and dug afresh.
There is no reference to furniture ; but we hear of
the carrying of fuel into the chamber of the queen.
It was supplied by a certain Marjorie Baty, who held
in connection with the palace an office of miscel-
laneous character, for which she received payment
in money, and an allowance of oats. In 1458 and
1459 she was remunerated for enclosing the ward
and the woods of Falkland ; and in subsequent years
for her charge of the queen's cattle, for keeping the
meadows, repairing the ditches, and cleansing the pools
of Falkland.
In 1461 six horses of the prince of England were
at Falkland for twenty-three days. Margaret, the
fugitive queen of Henry VI., and her son Prince
Edward, were at the time the guests of the queen-
FALKLAND PALACE 227
mother of Scotland ; and probably the prince, as well
as his horses, was at the palace. The younger children
of Queen Mary were there on several occasions : the
Earl of Mar and his sister, the Lady Mary, in 1463,
from the 25th of July to the 22nd of December;
and her eldest daughter Margaret, from the 4th of
July to the nth August. The stay of these persons
and their servants involved an expense of about j£6o.
In 1467 £136 were spent during a visit to Falkland
of the Duke of Albany, the Earl of Mar, and the
Lady Mary.
In 1468 the aqueduct in the meadow of Falkland
was repaired at a cost of los. This is the first mention
of the water-supply of the palace ; but in subsequent
years a payment of us. was made regularly for the
maintenance of the aqueduct.
A clearer view of the manner of life here, as in
other royal houses of Scotland, is obtained in the reign
of James IV. This king often " raide ower the
water to Falkland " : he journeyed " fra Leith to Inch
Keith and syne to Kinghorn," and thence to the palace ;
or he crossed the Forth at St. Margaret's or the
Queen's Ferry. His queen, Margaret Tudor, was
frequently with him, or sometimes she stayed at Falk-
land by herself. Usually the sojourns of the court
were brief : they lasted for a week or less ; but some-
times they were much longer, as when in 1504 the king
arrived on the 5th of October, and did not leave until
the loth of the ensuing May. He was attracted in
part by the good sport to be had in the park and the
surrounding country. In 1504 a fold was made in
the park for the capture of stags ; and eight stags
were sent to Edinburgh for the festivities in honour
of the king's marriage. Compensation was given in
the next year for the imparking for deer of land on
228 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
which twenty-four head of cattle had previously grazed.
The stalker of the Earl of Argyll went to Falkland in
1506 ; when the king was there in May of that year, he
stalked a deer with a cuiveryn. In January 1504, a
present of an English stag was brought to him at the
palace by one Powis, who received 143. as bridle silver.
There were other kinds of game in the park : the king
went hawking there in December 1490. There is
mention of wild boars ; and we hear in 1505 of the
trapping of foxes by means of " a stalp and an iron
graith." Food was provided in 1504 for three swans,
but these probably had an ornamental purpose. Per-
haps they swam on the pond which James made at
Falkland ; and which, in October of this year, he
stocked with three dozen of pike.
He was wont in the evenings to amuse himself
with cards, and play was sometimes high. On a
Sunday night in June 1490, he spent the large amount
of forty unicorns, or £36, in playing with the Earls of
Bothwell and Angus, the chamberlain, and George
of Parkle. In January 1504, the sums of 28s., 563.,
£4, i os., ^3, 1 6s., and again 563. were delivered to him
" to play at the tables " or " the cartis," and on the
7th of May 1507, he received 353. "to play at the
cartis in Falkland that nicht." This happened at a
time when £7 a year was a sufficient income for a
chantry priest. The distractions of music alternated
with those of gambling. A luter and a fiddler were
at the palace in September 1502; in January 1504
two luters, by the king's command; in 1505 a luter;
and in May 1507 some harpers, four other minstrels,
Sir Alexander Jardine's fiddler, and an individual called
" Whisselgibboun." A mysterious entry records pro-
vision, by royal precept, for a " wild lady " who came
from Perth to present herself at Falkland to the king
FALKLAND PALACE 229
in 1513, and for the pasturage of her horse during her
stay.
A feature of life in this palace, at some distance
from the centre of government, was a frequent coming
and going of messengers. Thus in the winter of 1504
Master Levisay, an Englishman, earned ten French
crowns, or j£y, by bringing writings to Falkland from
the king to the queen; and in August 1501 James,
from the palace, sent a man to Edinburgh to bring
tidings of the ships that had come into port.
The royal household must have been provisioned
chiefly by the produce of the lands of Fife, but some
additional delicacies were procured for the king's
table. A small barrel of apples and oranges was sent
to him at Falkland in 1497, and in 1505 some Rhenish
wine. Moreover care was taken to render the garden
productive. It was stipulated in 1484 that the gar-
dener should receive no fee unless he had worked well
and brought out fruits for the king's use. There is
mention of an orchard in 1487 ; and in the winter of
1506 the gardener supplied the king with pears.
In this reign two persons conspicuous in history
were at Falkland Palace. In 1489 a knight of Fife,
Sir Andrew Wood of Largo, was, with his two ships,
the Flower and the Yellow Carvel^ twice victor over
English vessels ; and on the loth of July in that year
he met the king on his coming to Falkland, and gave
him ten unicorns, or ^9. The Exchequer Roll of
1497 records the expenses in connection with the stay
at Falkland for one hundred days of five men in the
train of the " Duke of York," and of his horses. The
" duke " is Perkin Warbeck, who was presumably in
the company of his men and horses on this occasion.
A visitor of less note was Mountjoy, king-at-arms of
the French king, who was at the palace in 1507. In
230 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
1513, when James had stormed the castles of Norham
and Chillingham, he imprisoned their captains, John
Horsley and Edward Gray, at Falkland.
The life of the court at the pleasant hunting palace
has left its trace on literature. Blind Harry probably
recited there his verses ; Dunbar refers to Falkland in
his poems ; Falkland Green, a scene of rustic sports,
gave its name to a lost ballad, "Falkland on the
Green." The palace was apostrophised by David
Lindsay : —
"Fareweill Falkland, the fortalice of Fife—
Thy polite park under the Lomond low —
Sum tyme in the I led ane lusty life,
Thy fallow deer to see them rake in row."
The works undertaken by James IV. were such
that by one chronicler he is called the builder of the
palace. Money was spent on the fabric from 1501
until 1513; in the former year the large sum of
^832. In 1504 the land and house called "Mason-
luge " next to the palace were bought. Use was made
of great quantities of timber; and in 1505 and 1506
of 340 feet of glass. In 1511 ^20 were paid for the
" cupilling and gesting " of the great chamber of the
palace ; in 1513 timber was procured for the roof of
the great hall ; and a wall was raised between the
chapel and the new work as a protection against wind.
A new garden, which had two iron gates, was made.
Regular allowances of corn and barley were received
in 1501 and throughout the next hundred years by the
priest of the chapel of the palace, which contained an
altar of St. Thomas and was dedicated to that saint.
This chapel, which was evidently built by James IV.,
must have superseded the older foundation. In 1511
the payment of £200 for its fabric and for that of the
vestry was completed ; and in the same year the sum
FALKLAND PALACE 231
of ^35, 6s. was spent on certain " cuppills, syntreis
and angulars " in the chapel.
James IV. spared the trees of Falkland when he
wasted all other woods of Fife to build a ship greater
than any that ever had sailed in French or English
waters.
In one year of the minority of James V., 1519, a
great company was entertained at Falkland Palace.
Two hundred persons stayed there for three weeks
with the chancellor, James Bethune or Beaton, Arch-
bishop of Glasgow. They may have included the
governor Albany, who was there during the greater
part of the year. At some date in it Bisset, pur-
suivant, rode post out of Edinburgh with letters from
the governor to M. La Fayette, presumably a French
agent, then at Falkland.
Pitscottie relates with much picturesque detail the
history of an escape from the Douglases effected by
James V. at Falkland in 1528. Modern research has
proved, however, that this flight of the king took
place at Edinburgh. Yet Pitscottie's story has value
because it gives a picture, that dates within the cen-
tury, of manners in the palace. He tells that the
king called on the chamberlain of Fife and forester of
Falkland, and desired him to summon all those royal
tenants and gentlemen of the neighbourhood who had
the swiftest dogs, to meet at seven o'clock next morn-
ing " to slay ane fat buck or twa." Then he directed
the cooks and stewards to have his supper ready by
four, in order that he might go to bed early ; and he
went to his chamber soon after he had eaten. When
he was in bed he caused his collation to be brought
to him ; and he drank to James Douglas of Park-
head, and commanded him also to retire sooner than
usual, "that he might wait on him timeous." The
232 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
chronicler then describes how, after the watch was set
and all was quiet, James contrived his escape clad in
the " hose, coat, cloak, and bonnet " of a yeoman of the
stables ; and how George Douglas, when he returned
to the palace at midnight, heard from the porters
that the king was asleep.
Sober history relates that James was at Falkland in
1528, from the 22nd to the 25th of August and on the
2 jrd of September. He often rode to Stirling and then
eastwards to Falkland, and thence back to Edinburgh ;
or he crossed the water to Fife, and rode first to Falk-
land and afterwards to Stirling. Thus, on the loth of
July 1529, he rode "from Stirling towards Falkland
for supper " ; on the 1 6th he returned to Stirling ; on
the 1 9th he was in Edinburgh ; on the 7th of August
he was again in Stirling, and, after breakfast, rode
to Falkland for supper; on the I5th he was in St.
Andrews ; on the 1 6th again at Falkland ; on the
1 8th once more at Stirling, and ten days later in
Edinburgh. On these frequent journeys the court
was accompanied by quantities of baggage ; the king's
bed appears always to have been conveyed in his train.
In June 1534, hangings were taken to Falkland for the
chamber of the queen-mother ; and tapestry, cabinets,
and coffers were carried in four carts from St. Andrews
to Falkland in July. In the same year bedding, coffers
containing linen, the " claithes coffer " of the queen-
mother's master stabler, and her coffer and board were
conveyed from St. Andrews to Cupar, thence to Falk-
land, and thence to Ravynnesheucht and Dunfermline.
After the king's marriage to Mary of Guise royal
progresses became yet more elaborate. Nine horses
in October 1538, the year of the wedding, bore nine
coffers of the queen from Stirling to Falkland, seven
carried her ladies' beds and other gear, one the bedding,
FALKLAND PALACE 233
and six the king's tapestry, which was duly nailed up
at the palace. The queen had in her train eight ladies,
a midwife, a woman of the chamber, another woman
servant, and a fool. While she was at Falkland on
this occasion ten ells of green " birge " satin were
sent thither to make a gown for Senat, her fool. On
the 1 6th of December, six carts conveyed the coffers
in which were her wardrobe and that of her gentle-
women from Falkland to Kirkcaldy, and thence they
were borne to Kinghorn, where they were shipped
across the Forth. Provision was made also for the
carriage, by way of Dunfermline, of the bedding,
the tapestry, and the king's coffers. We hear of the
purchase of five ells of " great canvas " in which to
wrap the gear of the queen's ladies. Next year Mary
went to Falkland from Lindores : there is record of
the carriage of the baggage and bedding of herself
and her ladies, and of the boxes of the pages and
lackeys; and on the iyth of October George Steill
delivered to her grace at the palace twelve double
hanks of small sewing gold, six of great sewing gold,
and twelve of sewing silver, all of which had cost the
treasury the sum of £31, 43. It is probable that in
this remote palace the gentlewomen had much leisure
for needlework, for which the French queen appears
to have had great taste.
In 1541 twin sons were born to the queen at Falk-
land ; James, who died on the day of his birth, and
Robert, called Duke of Albany, who lived only for
two days. Soon afterwards the king and queen went
on a northern progress ; and they returned from
Aberdeen to Edinburgh "sidelings by Dundee and
Falkland."
In 1542 James V. died at Falkland Palace. After
the disaster of Solway Moss he was for a short time
234 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
at Holyrood, whence he made his way into Fife. He
went first to Hallyards, where he was courteously
received by William Kirkcaldy and the lady of Grange,
to whom he is said to have prophesied his death : " My
portion of this world is short, for I will not be with
you fifteen days." And when his servants asked him
where he would have provision made for Christmas,
he replied, " I cannot tell ; choose you the place.
But this I can tell you ; before Christmas day ye will
be masterless, and the realm without a king." None
dared contradict, " albeit there appeared in him no
signs of death." From Hallyards he went to the
castle of Cairnie, probably Lordscairnie Castle near
Cupar, a possession of the Earl of Crawford, where he
visited his mistress, the earl's daughter. Thence he
rode to Falkland, and there he took to his bed. The
news came from Linlithgow that on the 8th of Decem-
ber a daughter had been born to the queen. She was
to be the famed Mary Stewart. Her father, when he
heard of her birth, is said to have murmured, " Adieu,
fare weel ; it came with ane lass, it will pass with ane
lass ; " and then to have turned his face to the wall,
and commended himself to God's mercy. He spoke
little more that could be understood ; but it is told
that he " harped still on the old sore," and on the dis-
grace of his favourite, Oliver Sinclair. " Fie ! Fled
Oliver? Is Oliver taken? All is lost." Pitscottie
and Calderwood relate that Cardinal Beaton obtained
a grant of the regency by obliging the king, with his
last breath, to sign a document : " As many affirm,
a dead man's hand was made to subscribe a blank."
But of this there is no valid evidence. James died on
the 1 4th of December, in the presence of the cardinal,
the Earls of Argyll and Rothes, the Lords Erskine and
Lindsay, Master Michael Dury, Sir David Lindsay of
FALKLAND PALACE 235
the Mount, the laird of Grange, Andrew Wood of
Largo, and Norman Leslie, Master of Rothes.
On the 22nd of December the Earl of Arran was
declared by proclamation to occupy Falkland Palace
as regent ; and on the 5th of January he had been
appointed to go thither with divers lords in order to
convey the late king's body to Holyrood for burial.
In the reign of James V. much was done to the
fabric of the palace. In 1516 extensive repairs were
executed, which included work on the steps of the
new work ; and gates were made to the park. A cow-
house and a wall in front of the tower gate were made
in 1522 ; and the dovecote was mended. In 1528 a
stable was constructed, the felons' prison was repaired,
and a " vast carriage " of necessaries was brought from
Leven. Sums were spent on repairs in this and later
years. Nicholas Roy, a French master mason, was
remunerated for his work at Falkland from the 2Oth
of April 1539 until the 3ist of August 1540, at the
rate of £3, 6s. 8d. a month. It is in this period that
there is a reference to " ane palice maist magnificent,
whais name is Falkland."
There are contemporaneously frequent records of
sums paid, especially to the tenants of Cash, in
compensation for damage wrought by the king's deer
of Falkland. It is stated in 1533 that three marks and
two chalders of oats were allowed yearly to a man who
must so maintain the dikes and pales of the park that
the deer could work no harm. After 1539, the lands
of Darno were described as a waste for the pasture of
the king's fallow deer.
In 1536, oats were delivered at Falkland to feed
a fox of the king, apparently a pet. The wife of
Thomas Melville received in 1539, for her labour in
keeping and nursing certain of the royal pets, seven
236 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
ells of "fine French black to be to her a gown and
a kirtle," and six yards and a quarter of black velvet to
" wait " and " begary," otherwise to bind and adorn,
the garment. The gift cost the treasury ^15, i6s.
There is again mention of wild boars in the park.
Certain of these beasts were imported from France in
1541 ; and in the same year the laird of Fernie made
a paling of timber to confine them. He was paid in
1542 for his keepership of the new park, which must
refer to one of the recent enclosures.
Grazing rights held by private individuals in the
lands of the palace are hardly ever mentioned ; but in
1541 and in 1542 the comptroller made payment for
having pastured three swine in the park.
At a critical moment during the regency of Mary of
Guise, Falkland figures in history. Mary in 1559 was
at open war with the lords of the congregation ; at
Perth her measures had stirred to action John Knox
and the iconoclasts ; in June she passed thence by way
of Stirling to Falkland, with a force led by d'Oysel.
Argyll and Lord James Stewart summoned the
Protestant gentlemen of Angus and Mearns to meet
them at St. Andrews on the 3rd of June ; Knox
preached in Anstruther and Crail, and there followed
the usual scenes of destruction ; finally he went to
St. Andrews, and thereafter the rich monuments of
the many ecclesiastical associations of this city were
destroyed. The Archbishop of St. Andrews escaped
narrowly with his life ; and he came to Falkland and
told the regent what had passed.
She had been joined also by Chitelherault ; and
it was decided that her army of Scots and French
under Chdtelherault and d'Oysel should march on
St. Andrews by way of Cupar. But Cupar was held
already by the opposing party, whose forces, some
FALKLAND PALACE 237
3000 strong, were drawn up on Cupar muir. The
regent's army found themselves outnumbered ; they
halted near Tarvet and sent back to Falkland for
instructions. Mary thereupon despatched the Earl
Marshal, Lord Lindsay, and the laird of Waughton
to treat ; and eventually it was agreed that there should
be a truce of eight days, and that the regent's forces
should be removed from Fife. They retired to Falk-
land, and crossed the Forth on the following day.
In March 1562, the first spring after her return to
Scotland, Queen Mary crossed into Fife ; and on the
2 ist she was at Falkland Palace. On Maundy Thurs-
day the service of washing the feet was often performed
by the sovereign in person ; and there is evidence that
Mary this year did the office to certain maidens, for
the treasurer's accounts record the purchase in March
of 34 ells of Holland cloth, 24 of white " causey,"
30 of linen, and 2|- of " canviage," " for service to be
done on Skyris thurisday in Falkland to 19 virginis."
Another entry concerns the oats provided for the
horses of the " lords ambassadors " who were with
the queen.
The palace was disturbed on the 25th of March by
the arrival of the Earl of Arran, son to Chatelherault,
who was accompanied by Kirkcaldy of Grange. He
brought news of a plot ; his father, his brother Gavin
Hamilton, and the Earl of Bothwell had, he declared,
conspired to " cut off" James Stewart, now Earl of
Mar, and thus to gain possession of the queen's person.
His knowledge of their plans had caused his imprison-
ment in his father's house of Kineil, whence he had
escaped by ";^Ht from a high window, and had made
his way to Grange. In a subsequent examination he
acquitted his father but maintained his charge against
Bothwell. It became clear soon afterwards that Arran
238 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
was mad, and he was committed to ward ; yet Bothwell
and Gavin Hamilton, who came to Falkland in igno-
rance of his accusations, were imprisoned on suspicion,
the earl at Edinburgh Castle and Gavin at Stirling.
From Falkland Mary paid visits to St. Andrews
and Cupar. In May she returned to Edinburgh by
way of Lochleven. She was at Falkland again in
March and in April 1564, and in January 1565.
The references to the deer and the boars of Falk-
land Park in the regency of Mary of Guise and the
reign of her daughter are like those of the previous
reign. £4 were paid to a poor man who herded the
boars in 1543. It was enacted in 1555 that, since
the sheriff of Fife and his deputies had reported Falk-
land wood to be for the most part old and decayed,
it should be cut down, newly imparked, and hainit
(enclosed) for the raising of young trees. In 1561,
and afterwards until 1595, a tiler received a yearly fee
of £10 for maintaining the palace in tiles. This
office was analogous to the existing one of the glazier.
The palace was much associated with the plots and
the counterplots and the religious crises of the reign
of James VI., for that king was accused of preferring
hunting to preaching and he was often at Falkland.
In 1580 it was stated that the reconciliation effected
between Morton and Lennox and Argyll had "stayed
matters of violence that were intended at Falkland."
Lennox died in May 1583; and Walsingham in a
letter refers to another plot which would, had the duke
lived, have taken place at the palace. Its end, which
was doubtless to free the king from the power of the
Ruthven raiders, was there attained in the month of
June. James appointed at St. Andrews a meeting of
certain lords who favoured him, Huntly, Montrose,
Argyll, Crawford, Rothes, March, and Gowrie who is
FALKLAND PALACE 239
alleged to have joined his party. On the 2yth of the
month he rode out of Falkland with Colonel Stewart ;
at Dairsie he met March and other gentlemen ; and
thence he passed to St. Andrews, where he lodged first
at the Novum Hospitium and then at the castle. In
July he was again at Falkland as a free king.
On the 1 8th, Masters Robert Pont, David Lindsay,
and John Davidson were sent thither by the Presbytery
of Edinburgh to admonish the king. They were
received by James in his cabinet ; and he denied their
accusation of having introduced innovations, and
affirmed his right to choose his own council. They
told him that " there was never one yet in this realm, in
chief authority, that ever prospered after the ministers
began to threaten him " ; and in answer he smiled.
He was to prove an exception to this rule. In
conclusion the ministers exhorted Colonel Stewart
to have a care as to what counsel he gave to his
master. Before they left, James laid his hands on
each emissary.
Soon afterwards the king went to Perth, but on
the 3rd of August he returned to Falkland. On
the 5th the Earl of Arran crossed the Forth at
Queensferry with forty or fifty horse ; and had no
sooner arrived at Falkland than he was received into
high favour and began "to look braid." The time of
his ascendancy had begun. From this palace James
issued a proclamation which condemned the Ruthven
Raid. In September he went to Perth, but he returned
to Falkland on the I3th of the month and remained
until October.
He was there again in the following summer. In
May a parliament at Edinburgh had established epis-
copacy ; and ministers had been compelled to subscribe
a submission to their ordinary. On the 3rd and nth
24o ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
of June, and on the I5th of July, the borough of
Edinburgh sent as commissioners, to accompany their
neighbours who were charged to appear before the
king at Falkland, the provost, a bailie, and four other
men. Their neighbours were eleven deacons and elders
who had received and read a letter of the ministers to
the town council and session, before the king and his
council had seen it, and were therefore accused of
treason.
There is an account of the trial before the council
at Falkland, on the 28th of June, of John Blakburne,
a minister. He declared openly to his judges that he
had not subscribed the letter of submission because it
was contrary to God's word and to conscience ; and
that he approved of the reasons for which certain
ministers had rather left the country. As he finished
speaking, Arran exclaimed that order must be taken
with him and "the sinews of his craig yuiked," for
such a proud knave had never before come into the
presence of the king and council. Then James rose
from his seat and went quickly to the foot of the
table ; and took the pen, inkhorn, and paper from the
clerk, gave it to Blakburne, and placed him at a side
table that he might write his answer to the charges
made against him. The council thereupon adjourned
to dine ; and the minister asked that he might write in
some quiet place. The king summoned Arran and
Colonel Stewart ; and after they had conferred the
order was given to place Blakburne in irons. Then
he appears to have been carried into the guard-house ;
and there he craved, and obtained, a respite from his
irons, because they rendered it impossible for him to
stand, and he must write at a high window. He
made out three petitions : to clear himself of the
charge of treason, to plead the poverty of his estate,
FALKLAND PALACE 241
which did not suffice for the daily payment of two
marks obligatory during his imprisonment, and to
answer the king's arguments. For six days he was in
irons except when he was relieved by the sergeant.
James Chisholm, one of the masters of the household,
was sent to urge him to subscribe the submission, but
had no success. At last, when almost all the lords
were absent, he was, through the mediation of George
Young, removed to Dunfermline.
In August or September a Border ruffian, Jock
Graham of Peartree, was, according to his own deposi-
tion, brought by James to Falkland and bribed to
shoot the Earl of Angus. Besides himself there is no
witness to the tale.
The king in July 1585 held councils at Falkland.
In August the exchequer was appointed to meet there
from the ist to the 2ist, but the order was changed
on account of an outbreak of the plague. In a pro-
clamation made this year at the market cross of
Falkland, all persons were commanded to leave the
town within six hours, unless their occupation or
special leave entitled them to remain, or unless they
were properly dependent on some particular person
whose attendance the king required. The chief
occasion of the visitation of the plague was declared
to be the confluence of "rascall people and utheris
wicked personis lacking whome upon properly to
depend," who were very many in Falkland.
The ensuing autumn witnessed the fall of Arran
and the formation of a government in which no single
person was dominant. The Earls of Bothwell and
Mar belonged to the party thereafter ascendant ;
and when, on the 23rd of April 1586, they heard
that the king intended to set out from Edinburgh
on a journey without their knowledge, they went
Q
242 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
to him and offered their attendance. He refused,
and told them sharply that he would not be directed
by them, and would have them know he would be no
slave. On the same day, with only two servants, " he
rode his way over the water to Falkland." Until
October of this year he spent much time at the
palace.
He was there in May 1587, and frequently in the
following summer. He wrote thence as to ecclesi-
astical matters, and as to the despatch of ambassadors
to Denmark. In July the town council of Edin-
burgh determined that, if the sanction of the con-
vention of boroughs were obtained, William Fairlie
should pass to the king at Falkland and obtain from
him authority for the convention to proceed against
an English pirate vessel which was in the mouth of
the Firth of Forth, and had pillaged ships.
In 1589 a confirmation was made by the king and
council of an exemption from liability to taxation
enjoyed by the tenants of Auchtermuchty, Newton of
Falkland, Freuchy, Easter Cash, Kettle, Kingsbarns,
and other lands in the lordship and stewartry of Fife,
in virtue of their attendance on the king and queen,
and their service to them, whenever they made resi-
dence at Falkland Palace.
The marriage contract of James and the Princess
Anne of Denmark conferred on her the property
once enjoyed by Mary of Gueldres, the tenure for
life of the county of Fife, the castle and palace of
Falkland, and all appurtenant rights. James in 1589
issued instructions to such effect to those who
negotiated the marriage; in May 1590 the settle-
ment was formally made ; and on the I2th Callipeir,
admiral of the Danes, crossed the Forth to Falkland
to take possession in the queen's name. In June the
FALKLAND PALACE 243
king and queen went to Dunfermline and to Falk-
land. The king after a short stay made thence a
western progress, but Queen Anne remained at the
palace until his return, and eventually went back with
him to Edinburgh. From the loth of August until
the 8th of September nine feather-beds were pro-
vided in Falkland Palace for her company at a cost
of 2s. a night for each ; and the Danish strangers
were accommodated in the town in eight chambers,
each furnished with two feather-beds, coal, and a
candle, and hired at the rate of 6s. 8d. a night.
Falkland Palace was in 1592 the scene of one of
the reckless exploits of Francis, Earl of Bothwell.
Since his attempt at Holyrood in the previous Decem-
ber he had been forfeited by the parliament which
held its session in the spring. On the 28th of June
both the king and the queen were at Falkland, and
Maitland was absent from them at Lethington. The
wild earl rode up to the palace between one and two
o'clock in the morning at the head of a troop of more
than a hundred Borderers, Scots of Annandale and Lid-
desdale, and some Englishmen of Eskdale. He had been
joined, moreover, by Patrick, Master of Gray, and the
laird of Balwerie who brought a company of unarmed
horsemen. But Bothwell' s project of surprising the
court was foiled by the alertness of the watch. The
king retired to the tower and directed its artillery
against the attackers, who ranged round the palace
until about seven o'clock, when the countryside had
been roused, and they fled. Pursuit was at first im-
possible because they had taken with them all the
horses in the royal stables, and many more from the
town. They left dead behind them the Lord of
Spott. As the news of their attempt spread, the
gentlemen and the people of Fife, and the burghers
244 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
of Perth, Dundee, Cupar, and other places, came fast
to Falkland, until by six o'clock in the evening a great
crowd had gathered around the palace. A proclama-
tion for the capture of the assailants, who were said to
have returned to the west march, was issued on the
morrow, and on that day the king set out for Burnt-
island on his way to Holyrood. He was at Falkland
again in July ; and on the 24th Robert Bowes wrote
to Walsingham that Bothweli was on the road thither
with two hundred horse, probably in execution of
another design against the king, and that preparations
for defence had been made at the palace. This alarm
was groundless.
Sir James Scott of Balwerie and his brother were
pardoned in November, and Patrick, Master of Gray,
with his uncle and brothers, in August of next year,
for their part in Bothwell's enterprise. The latter
act of grace had place in the time of the ascendancy
of Bothwell's faction. While subject to that party,
James was at Falkland in August 1593.
In March of next year the privy council issued
a declaration that at the suit of the Danish ambassadors
they had promised to deliver the queen's possession of
Falkland into her personal tenure ; and that she now
required a fulfilment of this undertaking. They had
therefore ordered James Bethune of Creich, keeper
of the castle and palace, to produce his titles, which
had been found insufficient. He and all other keepers
were directed, in consequence, to remove themselves,
their servants, and cattle from the palace and its lands ;
and David Murray was instructed to take out of the
park and wood all horses and cattle that belonged to
himself or any other except the king.
This David, the king's familiar servant, had in the
previous December received a grant, in fee, of the
FALKLAND PALACE 245
office of master of the royal stable, and of a certain
empty house. He became comptroller of the house-
hold in 1599. The house was given to him again in
1600, when he is called David Murray of Gospetrie,
knight ; and it is described as the foundation of the
castle known as the " Castelsted " of Falkland, the
ruinous houses on its southern side, and the adjacent
groves and waste places. On the south side it was
separated by some six ells of land from the palace ; and
on the north it was bounded by the royal stables and
a building occupied by Patrick Seton ; on the east by
the king's hedges of Falkland ; and on the west by the
water of the Mospie. The property is the site and the
remains of the ancient tower of the Earls of Fife.
The history of the captaincy and keepership of
Falkland is obscure. John de Balfour is variously
called captain, keeper, and constable, in the years be-
tween 1453 and 1464. In 1471, and afterwards until
1487, the keepership was held by Thomas de Simson.
He was superseded in 1488 in his custody of the
palace, park, wood and meadows, and attendant fees,
and his tenure of the chamberlainry and stewartry of
Fife, by Nicholas Ramsay. In 1489 and 1496, Patrick
Hepburn of Beynstoun was keeper and chamberlain ;
and those offices were held by William Scott of Bal-
wery, knight, from 1497 to 1499, and by John Lundie
of that ilk from 1501 to 1503. The earliest mention
in connection with them of the Bethune family occurs
in 1504, when they were held by David Bethune.
From 1506 to 1513 they were in the tenure of James
Bethune, at first Abbot of Dunfermline, and afterwards
Archbishop of Glasgow. In 1525 James Bethune of
Creich, as keeper of the palace, complained that its
thaik (roof) was broken, and was commanded to repair
it at the king's expense.
246 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
Thereafter for some years no claim of the
Bethunes appears to have been respected. In 1526
a grant was made to Archibald, Earl of Angus, for
seven years, of the custody of the tower and palace,
the easter and wester woods, and the parks, deer,
meadows, and orchards ; together with the chamber-
lainry and stewardship of Fife. Angus probably re-
signed the offices, which were given, in tail male, in
1527, to William, son and heir of Thomas Barclay
of Rynde, and were still held by him in 1536.
The Bethunes held again in 1561. Robert
Bethune of Creich was captain or keeper of the
palace then and in 1569. In 1580 and in 1588
James Bethune of Creich was steward of Fife and
captain of Falkland. He and his heirs male were
constituted in 1592 hereditary stewards of Fife and
captains and keepers of the palace and its orchards
and gardens, which offices were declared to have been
held by him and his ancestors from time immemorial.
The grant specifically conveys a meadow to the east of
the King's Meadow which was called the " Capetane-
medow." The claim of the family to hereditary
tenure was not defeated by the act of 1594, but
ended only with a composition made in 1602. James
Bethune was then declared to have been the lawful
possessor of the hereditary stewartry of Fife and
captaincy and keepership of Falkland Palace ; and
an hereditary and kindly tenant to the king in the
lands of Darnoch within the stewartry. At the king's
command he had, however, resigned to the crown these
offices and lands ; and the king, in return, undertook to
enfeoff him, his son and heir David, and their heirs
and assigns with the lands of Nether Byres and
Urquharts within the stewartry, and with the rights
of pasturage in the Lomonds of Falkland, which the
FALKLAND PALACE 247
Bethunes had held anciently. If ever they were
troubled by the king or queen in their possession of
this property their resignation would be annulled ;
and if ever the king wished to demise the lands of
Darnoch, he would make the first offer of them to
James Bethune or his heirs. The promised enfeoff-
ment was made in 1603.
It seems certain that, even if the Bethunes had
throughout the sixteenth century a hereditary right,
sometimes overridden, to the keepership and stewartry,
their real claim was not one of older standing.
The office of forester of Falkland was held heredi-
tarily, and distinctly from that of keeper. It was
confirmed by the king in 1528 to Andrew Fernie of
that ilk; and in 1540 to Andrew Fernie of that ilk
and Barbara Logan his wife. The latter Andrew, in
1552, settled on his son and heir William the forester-
ship of the grove and wood of Falkland, the " crop
and bark " of the forest, pasture for twenty-four cows,
the range of the Lomonds of Falkland, the meadow
called the " Forestermede " to the north of Falkland
and the constabulary of Cupar. A " reasonable third "
was reserved to Barbara Logan, in case she survived
her husband. In 1590 the king confirmed a convey-
ance by the late William Fernie, mentioned in the
foregoing deed, to William Fernie of Foxtoun, of the
forestership and the range. The attendant profits
were specified as the branches and bark of every tree
cut down, together with three feet of its length meas-
ured from the lower end ; all branches blown down
by the wind, and all dead timber ; the shoulders and
skin of all fallow deer slain in the wood ; and rights
of pasturage for twenty-four cows, a bull, and calves.
Conveyance was made at the same time of the duty of
maintaining the walls of the grove and meadow of
248 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
Falkland Wood, to which rights of pasturage were
attached ; and of that of " searching " the range of the
Lomonds of Falkland. On the latter certain profits
depended which accrued, as spade silver, for turf and
divots that were carried away, as well as certain duties
of punishment in case of animals which pastured
wrongfully on the hills.
The Lomonds of Falkland, with the appurtenant
coal-heuchs and offices, were declared by act of parlia-
ment in 1594 to be inseparably annexed to the crown ;
but this did not affect the hereditary forestership.
In the spring and summer of 1595 the king was
as usual at the palace. Colville wrote to Cecil of
a plan to capture him "when he hunts his bucks in
Falkland." "The captain of that house has promised
us, any morning we please, to draw him out with the
huntsmen only to any part of the wood we please to
hide ourselves into." This complaisant officer may
have been James Bethune, thus able to keep his place
after 1594. His services were not required for such
a seizure of the king as he suggested. On the I2th
of August the convention of estates met at the
palace.
Another session of parliament was held there in
September 1596. In the same month the commis-
sioners of the general assembly and " divers other good
brethren," who had met at Cupar, were so perturbed by
the return from exile of Huntly and the Catholic lords,
that they sent certain of their number to remonstrate
with the king, then " very quiet " at Falkland. The
emissaries deputed James Melville to be their spokes-
man, because he could state their case " substan-
tiously," and yet in such a " mild and smooth manner "
as pleased the king They were received by James alone
in his cabinet ; and he opened the conference by finding
FALKLAND PALACE 249
fault with their meeting, in such wise that their plan
of procedure was upset. For, as James Melville began
a " mild and smooth " answer, Andrew Melville lost
all patience, and interrupted with a force, which the
king, for all he strove, with " crabbed and choleric "
speech, to use his authority, could not resist. The
torrent of Andrew's eloquence was not to be stemmed :
he claimed to hold a commission from the mighty
God ; and he called the king " God's silly vassal,"
and took hold of him by the sleeve ; and then, " through
much hot reasoning and many interruptions," he stated
the position of his party. "Sir, as divers times before,
so now again I must tell you, there are two kings and
two kingdoms in Scotland : there is Christ Jesus and
His kingdom the kirk, whose subject King James the
Sixt is, and of whose kingdom not a king nor a head
nor a lord but a member ; and they whom Christ has
called, and commanded to watch over His kirk, and
govern His spiritual kingdom, have sufficient power
of Him and authority so to do, both together and
severally ; the which no Christian king nor power
should control and discharge, but fortify and assist,
otherwise not faithful subjects nor members of Christ.
And, Sir, when ye were in your swedling-clouts Christ
Jesus reigned freely in this land in spite of all His
enemies, and His officers and ministers convened and
assembled for the ruling and weal of His kirk." Thus
"with great liberty and vehemence" the brethren
declared themselves, until James adopted the part of
discretion. He made many assertions that he had not
known of the coming of the Popish lords until after
their arrival in the country ; and dismissed his visitors
" pleasantly."
The kirk, nevertheless, was soon to fall from its
high place. In the course of next year James brought
250 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
it into subjection; in July 1597 the Catholic earls
of Huntly and Errol were reconciled to it, and in
August Errol was at Falkland Palace <cin great
bravery."
There was little to distinguish the residence of the
court at the palace in the summers of 1598 and 1599.
In 1600, however, it was the scene of a last attempt
to gain ascendancy in the kingdom by the old Scottish
device, a capture of the king's person.
James in August of that year was at Falkland, and,
as was his use in this season, he daily hunted his bucks.
Between six and seven o'clock on the morning of the
5th, in wonderfully seasonable and pleasant weather,
he came to the green where his horse was in readiness,
and where all the huntsmen and hounds awaited him.
He and his suite were clad in green ; he carried no
sword, but only a hunting-horn. As he was about
to mount Alexander Ruthven, brother of the Earl of
Gowrie, whose presence here was unexpected, came
up to him, made a very low bow, and drew him apart.
Then, with a dejected countenance and lowered eyes,
he began a strange tale. He had, he said, met in
Perth a man who carried a pot of gold, apparently
foreign money ; and he had bound and confined him,
and wished the king to ride now to Perth, in order
to annex the treasure. James was much surprised,
both by the extraordinary story and by the manner of
its teller ; but he was more than anything else eager
for his sport : the morning was fair ; the game had
been found ; and the huntsmen were awaiting him in
the fields. He broke in upon the speaker with the
remark that he could now stay no longer, but that he
would consider the matter, and would answer as to
what course he would take when the chase was over.
Then he hurriedly mounted and joined the hunt.
FALKLAND PALACE 251
The Master of Ruthven was left protesting; but
presently sent a man to Perth to tell his brother to
prepare dinner for the king.
James rode up a little hill above a wood which
the dogs were drawing ; but in spite of the pleasant
beginning of the hunting his thoughts recurred to the
tale he had heard. He turned therefore to John
Nasmyth, a surgeon, who happened to be riding
beside him, and sent him to bring up Alexander
Ruthven. Then he waited ; and when the Master
had arrived told him that he had been so impressed
by the earnestness of his words that whenever the
sport was over he would ride in person to fetch the
gold. During this delay the king was left behind by
all the hunt except John Hamilton of Grange, one of
his master stablers, and he now rode forward with
him and with Ruthven.
They hunted until eleven o'clock or later, and all
the time Ruthven was at the king's back, and a pause
never occurred but that he turned upon the king and
urged him to end the sport. When they had killed
James did not stay, as was his wont, until the deer
had been divided, but alighted and sent to the stables,
whence they were now distant by the length of some
two shots, for a fresh horse. Ruthven, however, would
not even suffer him to wait till his mount was brought.
He was so importunate that the king got once more
on to his tired hunter and rode off, leaving orders
that a fresh horse should be made to gallop after him.
He would not even stay until his sword was fetched,
or until Lennox, Mar, and some other gentlemen had
time to change their mounts in order to accompany
him. He said that he must go to Perth to speak to
the Earl of Gowrie, and would be back before evening.
Some of his gentlemen rode after him at once on
252 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
their wearied horses, and others hurried to the stables
and afterwards followed the king. Ruthven would
have gone without an escort.
This version of the beginning of the incident
called the " Gowrie Plot " is that given by Calderwood,
and accords with the official account published at the
time. There is no question as to external events ;
but as to the matter of conference between Ruthven
and James there is doubt, and it has been held that
the king had summoned the Master to Falkland, and
rode to Perth of his own free will. The whole
subject is treated by Mr. Andrew Lang in the second
volume of his " History of Scotland."
The official version relates that in his house at
Perth Gowrie, with his brother, entrapped and at-
tempted to murder James. The report that the king
had narrowly escaped a treacherous death spread
rapidly through the country. It was nearly eight
o'clock when he left Perth, and the night was dark
and rainy, yet the whole road to Falkland Palace
was " clad " with people of all sorts and conditions,
on foot and on horseback, who greeted him with
glad acclamations. During the ensuing week a great
concourse of persons of every degree came to the
palace to offer congratulations and protest their
loyalty.
In the palace certain men suspected of knowledge
of the plot, Cranstoun, Gowrie's equerry, and Craig-
ingalt, his under-steward, were examined. Before the
end of the week the king left for Edinburgh.
Until James went to England nothing more of
interest happened at Falkland Palace. In 1605
William Brown, treasurer clerk, was instructed to go
thither to collect all the king's tapestry and mov-
ables, and to make an inventory of them, preparatory
FALKLAND PALACE 253
to their being placed in the single wardrobe, which
was for the future to contain such goods.
James VI. does not seem to have undertaken,
before his accession to the English throne, any building
works of importance at Falkland. In 1584 slates,
lime, sand, and timber were needed to repair the
palace roof. The steward and chamberlain of Fife
were therefore instructed to require the tenants and
feuars of the king within the earldom, in such places as
they should judge best, to carry these commodities
from the coast and its neighbourhood to the palace,
not as a service exacted by the terms of enfeoffments,
but as an act of goodwill and benevolence. The names
of any who disobeyed were to be reported to the king
and council. This measure was not to prejudice the
future tenure of those affected by it.
There is again mention in this period of payments
to the tenants of Cash for grain destroyed by the
deer of the park. In 1597 all dispositions of the
palace, and of the coal, park, and Lomonds which
pertained to it, were annulled. In 1606 however
an act of parliament enabled the alienation from the
crown, in favour of the highest bidder, of the hills
of the Lomonds and the muirs of Falkland. Details
exist as to proceedings against poachers. Richard
and John Scott were in 1598 denounced as rebels
because they bore pistolets and troubled the keepers
of the park. In 1605 Alexander Morieson and
William Haig, servants to Master John Clepen of
Ballintaggart, had, in spite of divers acts and pro-
clamations, hunted and slain one of the king's deer
in Falkland Park, and had been imprisoned in Edin-
burgh. The lords of the privy council wished to
make an example of them, and therefore ordered the
bailies of Edinburgh to instruct their lokman to take
254 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
the offenders to the market cross, to set on the
forehead of each a piece of clean paper on which
was written in great letters, "For Slaying of the
Kinges Deir," and to leave them bound to the cross
for two or three hours. Then they must be led to
the Nether Bow, and there the fact of their perpetual
banishment from the shire of Fife, on pain of death,
must be proclaimed. In 1611 a petition was tendered
against a certain Abercromby, who had with hagbuts
and pistolets " made great spoil and destruction "
among the king's geese in Falkland Park.
The privy council in 1600 published a prohibi-
tion. It was stated that for some years herons had
been so frequently slaughtered in the Carse of Gowrie,
Fife, Strathearn, and the surrounding district that they
had almost been exterminated. A few had now, how-
ever, begun to build in the park of Falkland ; and,
since the king was desirous for their increase, it was
ordered that a proclamation should forbid herons to
be shot, otherwise killed, or taken, during the next
three years, in Fife, Kinross, and the Carse of Gowrie,
and in Strathearn eastwards of Comrie and of the
Stopis of Kilbuk, on pain of imprisonment for a year
and a day for the first offence, and of banishment from
the country for the second.
The bounds of the park were enlarged in 1 606 by
the inclusion in it of half the lands of the feuars of
Cash, who, to compensate them for their dispropria-
tion, were exempted from all feu-farms and other
duties which they had hitherto rendered for their
remnant of property. A grant of the lands of
Wester Cash made in March to Andrew Bickertoun
conveyed also the right of pasturing animals through
the common wood of the forest of Falkland to the
Lomonds.
FALKLAND PALACE 255
In 1608 occurred the disgrace of James Elphin-
stone, first Lord Balmerino. He held the post of
secretary after 1598, and as such he wrote a letter to
Clement VIII., which was signed by the king and had
part in procuring a cardinal's hat for a Scottish subject.
It became expedient for James to disavow all trafficking
with Rome, and Balmerino was accused of high treason
and warded at Falkland. In 1609 his health had
suffered from close confinement in the foir (fore) tower
of the palace ; and his prison was extended to include
all the palace and the country within a mile of it, on
condition that he found sufficient landed gentlemen to
stand sureties for him in £40,000. This sum was paid
by Alexander, Lord Elphinstone, Alexander, Master
of Elphinstone, and Sir George Elphinstone of Blyth-
wood. Balmerino was removed in 1610 to the house
from which he took his title, and was granted liberty
within twenty miles of it. He died in 1612.
Prohibitions as to hunting in the vicinity of Falk-
land, on account of an approaching visit of the king,
were published, as in the case of Holyrood, in 1607
and 1610, and were repeated in 1616. A two-storied
house opposite the palace still bears the inscription,
" King's Falconer's House. All praise to God, and
thanks to the most excellent monarch of Great Bri-
tain, of whose princelie liberality this is my portion.
Deo laus esto fedus adest merci. Nicol Moncrief,
1610."
In 1616 it was ordered that all the tiling of the
galleries of the king and queen in the palace should
be removed, their stonework supplemented, and a
" barteseene " roofed with lead built about them. The
tiling of all the palace was to be renewed where neces-
sary, and the faults of the roof repaired. In March
1617 the privy council charged George, Marquess of
256 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
Huntly, according to his promise to dismiss from his
works at Strathbogie, John Anderson, painter, and
suffer him to present himself with his work-looms at
Falkland. He must be there within six days on pain
of rebellion.
Another preparation for the king's visit consisted in
a direction that the paling and dike of the park should
in places be broken down, so as to allow the " bucks
and beasts" to "raik forth" out of it. They would
thus gain acquaintance with the locality of gaps, and
would furnish the king at his coming with the better
sport. For slaying a " beast or buck thus straigling
and raiking through the country," the penalty was for
an earl 500 marks, for a lord 400 marks, for a baron
300 marks, for a landed gentleman 100 marks, and for
a commoner £40.
On the nth of May 1617 the king arrived. On
the 1 5th, eighty carts were ordered to be at Kirkcaldy
for the conveyance of his wardrobe to the palace ; the
parishioners of various places in Fife were directed
to carry his baggage from Burntisland, Kinghorn, or
Kirkcaldy, at whichever of them it was landed after
crossing the Forth, to Falkland on the I9th, thence
on the 2 ist to the place of the ferry over the Tay to
Dundee, from that ferry on the 2nd of June back to
the palace, and from Falkland to Kirkcaldy, Kinghorn,
or Burntisland on the 3rd. In these journeys James
was attended by a " great number of noblemen and
other persons of rank and quality," and a multitude of
carriages. When it was necessary that all should be
transported across the Tay, an order was issued to the
" owners, skippers, mariners, and boatmen " of all
boats at the south and north ferries to attend for the
purpose. A Latin poem was presented to the king on
his arrival at Falkland, in the name of the town of
FALKLAND PALACE 257
Aberdeen. It had been composed, at the request of
the corporation, by David Wedderburn, rector of the
grammar school of Aberdeen, to whom fifty marks were
paid by the treasurer. The king visited the palace
again and for the last time on the 3rd of July, when
he remained for about a fortnight. He probably
devoted most of his stay to his favourite pastime of
hunting. Three years later, when he wished to honour
an English servant, Sir Henry Carey, he bestowed on
him the title of Viscount of Falkland in Fife ; and the
Falkland Islands, which have brought the associations
of the Scottish palace to the region of Cape Horn,
were nam^H o
ERRATUM,
Page 256, line 24, for " Charles I." read " Charles II."
^na^i, wiLii an possible care for the preservation
of its " sylring." The chapel appears at this date to
have been entirely redecorated.
The master of the works was also directed to cause
the garden dikes, which had fallen down, to be built
up with stone and lime, and to repair, roof, and slate
the ruinous stables. A commission to view the palace,
and report within eight days on its condition, was
appointed by the privy council in 1629. Charles I.,
when in 1628 he announced an intended visit to Scot-
256 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
Huntly, according to his promise to dismiss from his
works at Strathbogie, John Anderson, painter, and
suffer him to present himself with his work-looms at
Falkland. He must be there within six days on pain
of rebellion.
Another preparation for the king's visit consisted in
a direction that the paling and dike of the park should
in places be broken down, so as to allow the " bucks
and beasts" to "raik forth" out of it. They would
thus gain acquaintance with the locality of gaps, and
would furnish the king at his coming with the better
sport. For slaying a " beast or buck thus straigling
-i u 4-Uo, /-/-vnntt-v " thf». nenaltv was for
the palace, and from jpaiKianu LU .ivn^^^, -— b ,
or Burntisland on the 3rd. In these journeys James
was attended by a " great number of noblemen and
other persons of rank and quality/' and a multitude of
carriages. When it was necessary that all should be
transported across the Tay, an order was issued to the
" owners, skippers, mariners, and boatmen " of all
boats at the south and north ferries to attend for the
purpose. A Latin poem was presented to the king on
his arrival at Falkland, in the name of the town of
FALKLAND PALACE 257
Aberdeen. It had been composed, at the request of
the corporation, by David Wedderburn, rector of the
grammar school of Aberdeen, to whom fifty marks were
paid by the treasurer. The king visited the palace
again and for the last time on the 3rd of July, when
he remained for about a fortnight. He probably
devoted most of his stay to his favourite pastime of
hunting. Three years later, when he wished to honour
an English servant, Sir Henry Carey, he bestowed on
him the title of Viscount of Falkland in Fife ; and the
Falkland Islands, which have brought the associations
of the Scottish palace to the region of Cape Horn,
were named after the peerage.
In 1619, 1620, June and November 1621, 1628,
1629, 1630, 1631, and 1633 the proclamations issued
in the case of Holyrood to preserve game in the
neighbourhood of the palace, on account of an ex-
pected visit of the king, were published also at Falk-
land. In 1625 certain parts of the palace were said
to be very ruinous and far decayed, neither water-
tight nor wind-tight, and in danger of perishing. James
Murray, master of the king's works, was therefore
ordered to note all need of repair, and to provide, in
accordance with directions from the treasurer and his
deputy, for the " roofing, sarking, and theaking " of
the chapel, with all possible care for the preservation
of its " sylring." The chapel appears at this date to
have been entirely redecorated.
The master of the works was also directed to cause
the garden dikes, which had fallen down, to be built
up with stone and lime, and to repair, roof, and slate
the ruinous stables. A commission to view the palace,
and report within eight days on its condition, was
appointed by the privy council in 1629. Charles I.,
when in 1628 he announced an intended visit to Scot-
•.
•
258 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
land, stated that, in spite of the necessary briefness of
his stay, he had resolved to see his house of Falkland ;
and in the following year the privy council informed
Lord Stormont that " the place of Falkland " was one
of the especial houses, in which, next to Holyrood
House, the king would have his residence. Hence, as
the king was expected, Stormont must see that it was
abandoned by all its present inhabitants, its furniture
and other contents left in correspondence with the
inventory, and the keys delivered to the master of
the works.
Again early in 1633 it was announced that the
king, when he came in the spring to Scotland, would
visit Falkland Palace. On the 2nd of January the
order was issued that, to give him the better sport, the
park of Falkland should, of all others, be kept and en-
closed (hayned) with especial care ; and that none should
hunt or slay deer within it. A fortnight later the
lords of council ordered a proclamation at the market
cross of the town, and during Sunday morning sermon
or prayers at the parish church nearest the park.
This stated that divers persons who dwelt near the
palace, daily had resort to its grounds and wandered,
hunted, and hawked in them, broke down the palings
and walls, and pastured their animals in such numbers
that the king's deer were weakened and almost starved.
Such of the deer as left the park were hunted and
slain by the country people. All this was " in high
and proud contempt" of the king, and tended to
spoil his game, and therefore was forbidden : license
to pasture beasts must be obtained from Lord Annan-
dale, the forester ; and the slaying of deer outside the
park was made punishable by imprisonment in Falk-
land Palace, and liability to fines imposed by the
council.
FALKLAND PALACE 259
On the last day of January all dwellers in Falkland
Palace were ordered to remove themselves and their
belongings. In February the necessity had become
evident of providing for the horses of the king and
his train. Officers of arms were therefore instructed
to " pass, fence, and arrest " all straw and hay in the
parts of Fife around the palace. They were to meet
within the borough of Falkland James Kinninmont,
chamberlain of Fife, and David Balfour of Balloch,
with whom they should agree as to the price to be
paid for the provision. Lodgings and stables for the
royal company were reserved in Falkland by the same
measures as in the Canongate. In April complaint
was made of certain persons who, by building stables
on the walls of the gardens and orchards of the palace,
had in a disgraceful manner impeded the passage to it,
and obscured the view of its entry and gate. This
action was condemned as very presumptuous ; the
offenders were summoned to appear before the privy
council, and the demolition of their stables was
ordered, unless they could show reason to the con-
trary.
On the 5th of July Charles I. arrived at Falkland.
The duty of conveying his baggage thither from Dun-
fermline had been assigned to various parishes in Fife.
The Earl of Dunfermline, as bailiff of the regality,
had been ordered to warn in good time the noblemen,
barons, vassals, and feuars of his jurisdiction, that with
him, all well horsed and equipped, they must form an
escort. He must have especial care that no rascals
or commoners should be in his company; but the
people might stand by the wayside to get a sight of the
king. The sergeant of the king's pastry and his cook
were given power here as in Edinburgh to impress
assistants.
260 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
Such were the preparations for the short stay
which King Charles made at Falkland Palace, and
which he occupied with sport and recreation. There
is no evidence that he repeated his visit when he was
again in Scotland in 1641.
On one other occasion Falkland was a hunting
place of kings. When in 1650 the Scots had agreed
to receive Charles II., the parliament appointed the
deputy treasurer to go to Falkland to see to the
provision of the king's house. On the 6th of July,
on his way southwards from the mouth of the Spey
where he had landed, Charles reached the palace.
He was received by the news of the confirmation of
the treaty of Heligoland by the Scottish estates,
and of their vote that all but nine of his followers
must leave the country. We are told that he
occupied himself with " his huntis and pastymes " ;
but according to the Mercurius Politicus he had another
less congenial employment. That paper stated on
the 22nd of July that " the Thing called his Majesty"
was " lodged in one of the old Palaces, of as royall
a structure as an English Alehouse, where great
care is taken to make him learn the Kirk's lesson
without a book." He passed to Perth on the 27th.
In August he " went over the water to Dunfermline
and Falkland for his recreation " ; and he was at
Falkland again in the subsequent January. In
December 1650, when a certain agreement had been
made between the true royalists and the covenanters,
on the ground of their common support of the king,
the Earl of Lothian met Lord Crawford and others at
Falkland "for a composition of business."
Cromwell's army overran Fife in the summer of
1651, and probably then occupied the palace. Next
year the woods of Falkland were cut down by his
FALKLAND PALACE 261
soldiers. The trees were for the most part oaks, and
according to one tradition they were used to build the
citadel and barracks at Perth. Such is the statement
made more than sixty years afterwards by Defoe, who
adds that the Protector converted the park into
ploughland. The palace had been garrisoned in 1653,
the year of the royalist Highland rising. After
the Earl of Glencairn had been proclaimed governor
at a meeting of Highland leaders in July, he swooped
down upon Falkland, and carried off thence an officer
and four or five soldiers, who recovered their liberty
only after payment of a ransom of j£8o.
The palace and park were granted by the Pro-
tector to Colonel Lockhart of Lee, but reverted to
the crown at the Restoration. The demolition of
two sides of the quadrangle of Falkland Palace is
ascribed to a fire which occurred under Charles II.
Nevertheless, in 1693, Robert Sibbald in the Theatrum
Scotia describes not only " a pretty little town," but
also "a stately palace" "at the foot of Lomon hill."
" The king's park and a wood are adjacent to it, into
which, as also into the plain towards the east, it hath
a most pleasant prospect."
In 1715, after the battle of Sheriffmuir, the
royalist Macgregors under Rob Roy retired upon
Falkland, took possession of the palace, and plundered
the surrounding country.
Defoe's visit occurred some ten years later in the
course of his tour through Great Britain. The palace
aroused his admiration, and his description is an
exact account of its condition. " The two sides
that still stand in the inner square show a beautiful
piece of architecture. It consists of two stories with
rows of marble pillars of the Corinthian order, set
in sockets of stone between every window ; on each
262 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
side of the window a bust in basso relievo of the
emperors and empresses, and at the top of each
pillar a statue as big as the life. There are twenty-
two busts and twelve pillars still remaining. . . .
You enter this palace by two stately towers, and on
the right is a chapel, still well preserved, with
statues as big as the life in the niches on the out-
side. Here were spacious gardens, with a park well
planted with oak and well stocked with deer, paled
round for eight miles." Of the town of Falkland,
Defoe says that it was " clean, not unlike Wood-
stock"; and of the hill behind it that it was " covered
with the finest pasturage for sheep."
The further history of the palace is found in that
of the offices of keeper and forester.
The keepership, after its hereditary tenure by the
Bethunes had been abolished, was given to George,
Earl of Dunbar, and in 1611, after his death, to
Alexander, Earl of Dunfermline.
The hereditary forestership was conveyed by
William Fernie of that ilk and William his son to
David Murray of Gospetrie, the holder of Castelsteid ;
who was created Lord Scone in 1605 as a reward for
his service to the king in connection with the Gowrie
Conspiracy. In. 1606 and 1612 the forestership and
its rights and duties were granted to him in tail male
by the king. At the same time he received the site
of the house of Patrick Seton, which had stood at
the right-hand corner of the king's stables. All his
property in Falkland followed until 1658 the descent
of the viscountcy of Stormont, which accrued to him
in 1621 as a consequence of the influence he exerted
for the passing of the Articles of Perth. A settle-
ment of 1614 mentions in connection with the Castel-
steid certain newly constructed gardens and adjacent
FALKLAND PALACE 263
" greens, wastes, and shaws," and the garden made on
the site of Seton's house and surrounded by walls ;
and enumerates among the duties of the forester that
of sustaining the walls, banks, and paling of the wood-
land and woods of Falkland. Another settlement of
1625 stipulates that the forester sustain at his own
cost keepers of the woods and park, the king's deer,
and the walls and ponds ; and that he collect the hay
of the broad woodland called the " Kingis Medow,"
place it in the king's hayhouse, and administer it for
the nourishment of the deer in winter and in time of
storm. He is suffered to pasture in the whole wood
six mares and their foals, and other animals, according
to custom, in the eastern wood ; to receive all fallen
timber, bark, and from cut trees the length of the
shaft of a wood-axe, as well as an annual fee of a
chalder of oats and two chalders of barley. He is
said at this date to be constable of Falkland, perhaps
in right of his tenure of Castelsteid. Yet another
settlement made in 1630 assigned to the heirs of
David, Viscount of Stormont, the lands of Ballinblae
and their loaning and sward in Falkland, the parts of
the Lomonds called the Blackhills and the Muirs of
Falkland, great and small coals in those muirs and the
Lomonds, and other royal lands, the tithes of the
rectory of Kilgour or Falkland, the Newlands on
either side of the water of Mospie, Croftangrie or
Chrystiescroft, and the office of scrutinising the moors
of Falkland with the attendant spade silver and rights
of punishment. The holder must, unless the coals
which thus belonged to him failed, carry of them
every tenth load to the palace, if the king were there
resident, and, if he were absent, must either give such
to the crown, or pay for each load 4od., and 133. 4d.
annually in fee farm.
264 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
The first Viscount Stormont, who married Eliza-
beth, the daughter of David Bethune of Creich, died
childless in 1631. His niece Anne, daughter of
Andrew Murray of Balvaird, had married his distant
cousin and successor, Mungo, younger son of the Earl
of Tullibardine. She died in 1631, and her husband,
after a second marriage, in 1642 ; both without issue.
In virtue of a settlement, ratified by the king in 1630,
the forestership descended to James Murray, second
Earl of Annandale and third Viscount Stormont, who
died without issue in 1658. After the Restoration,
in 1662, the king confirmed the office of forester
to John Murray, Earl of Athol and of Tullibar-
dine. He received, to hold to him, his heirs male
and assigns, the ruinous castle called Castelsteid,
with the buildings and yards erected on it by David,
Viscount Stormont, the adjacent green wastes and
woods, the ground compassed by walls once occupied
by Seton, and the office of constable of Falkland.
The forestership was granted to him with the dues
anciently appurtenant to it. Moreover, additional
offices, those once held separately by the keepers, were
bestowed on him also : the captaincy and keeper-
ship of the palace and of its buildings, orchards,
and greens, the fee of five chalders of beer and five
of oats from the farms of Newton Falkland and
Freuchie, which pertained to the offices of constable
and captain, and to the obligation of maintaining the
palace wind-tight and water-tight in slates, glass, locks
and keys; and the stewartry of Fife with its appur-
tenant rights and dues.
It is thus that Falkland Palace came to be held of
the king by John, Earl of Athol, who became Mar-
quess of Athol in 1676, and died in 1703. Sibbald
speaks of the considerable rents which he received as
FALKLAND PALACE 265
hereditary keeper and steward. He was succeeded by
his son John, who, in May 1703, was created Duke
of Athol. The duke sold his right in Falkland, in
1787, to General Philip Skene of Hallyards, who died
next year, and left as heir a nephew, David. At the
death of the latter in 1808, the keepership was in-
herited by his aunt, Helen Skene, the wife of Major-
General Moncrieff of Myres. She disposed of it to her
second son, George, who sold it to Mr. John Bruce.
By his descendant it was sold to the late Lord Bute,
from whom it passed to his son, Lord Ninian Crichton-
Stuart, the present hereditary keeper.
The history of the palace is reflected in some pro-
verbs still current in Fife. Freuchie is a village at a
short distance from Falkland, and "To go to Freuchie "
signified to be banished from court. It has acquired
the meaning of the English " To go to Coventry."
The occasional version of ' ' To go to Freuchie and fry
frogs " probably originated in the disgrace of a French
favourite. " To be Falkland bred " is to have courtly
manners ; and " You're queer folk no to be Falkland
folk" is a retaliation to the ostentatious. "You'll
no cut the woods o' Falkland wi' a penknife " must
date from the days of Cromwell at latest. " The king
may come by the Cadger's Gait " is an inverse expres-
sion of the sentiment in the English, "The cat may
look at the king." It alludes to the footpath still
called the Cadger's Gait or Path, which leads across
country from Falkland to the sea-shore at Earlsferry,
and by which tradition still tells that fish once were
carried to Falkland Palace. The right of way over
this path was upheld by a decision in the law courts
in 1908.
There is no evidence as to the structure of the
castle of Falkland which was demolished in 1337.
266 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
That tower of the earls which was built before 1371
is known, however, to have been a keep of the type
usual in the fourteenth century, and to have had an
importance proportionate to the high place held by the
lords of Fife. " In excavating in the garden to the
north of the palace," wrote Lord Bute, " we found
the remains of the original enclosing wall, and in the
north-east angle a part of a round tower retaining a
small portion of the ornamental string-course. . . .
This great tower, with its high pointed roof, must
have been the main feature of the early group of
buildings, and a prominent feature in the landscape
for many miles round. Its great size implies truly
noble rooms." Lord Bute believed that the castle had
comprised "a hall, chapel, and number of rooms,
gallery, kitchen, stores, offices, stables and the like."
He considered that the remains which he found date
from "about the thirteenth century" ; but apart from
the fact of the demolition in 1337, the plan of the
castle seems to belong to a later period. Some grassy
ruins near the angle of the palace walls still mark the
place of the stronghold of the earls.
The palace of Falkland which was built in the
fifteenth century was discovered by the research of
Lord Bute once to have surrounded three sides of a
quadrangle ; the west side was enclosed by a wall.
The south side is still in good preservation ; that on
the east is a roofless ruin ; and from the north side all
buildings have gone.
James IV. was evidently the chief builder of the
south front, and he probably brought into order with
his own plan the work of his predecessors. The
entrance to the courtyard of the palace is through an
archway at the west end of this front, and is between
two round and lofty towers with conical roofs, very
FALKLAND PALACE 267
like the south-west tower which the same king made
at Holyrood. No portcullis guarded the entrance of
this house, which of all their palaces was that whither
the kings came to pursue pleasure rather than business.
On the front to the east of the gateway buttresses are
interposed between the windows. Their length is broken
by canopied niches in which statues once have stood,
and they culminate in pinnacles above the level of the
roof. They support, at the point of their junction
with the pinnacles, a cornice which is continued above
the gateway. The effect has very much grace. There
is every evidence that the work was native, although
the introduction of buttresses is unusual in Scotland.
The large room on the first floor to the east of the
gateway was believed by Messrs. MacGibbon and Ross
to have been the hall of the palace ; but Lord Bute
identified it as the chapel, and as such restored it.
There is indeed evidence that it was redecorated in
1633, a date at which the chapel is known to have
been repaired ; and it is a semblance of its condi-
tion in that year which Lord Bute endeavoured to
reproduce. At all events the room dates from the
reign of James IV. It is lighted from the south by
mullioned windows, and has a beautiful timber roof
decorated with wooden ribs and mouldings, geometri-
cally disposed. Beneath it, on the ground floor, are
the usual vaulted rooms which served as kitchens
and offices.
That facade of the south side of the palace which
looks to the courtyard was added by James V. It
fronts the corridor which he made on the north side
of the hall or chapel. In design it is an example of
pure and very early Renascence work : classical columns
and pilasters occur at intervals ; between them are
the windows of the ground floor and the first floor ;
268 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
and on either side of those of the upper story are
medallions on which are carved heads. On the plinth
beneath each column are the inscriptions "I. R. 5.
D. G." and " MRIA. D. G." (" Jacobus Rex V. Dei
Gratia " and " Maria Dei Gratia "). Thus the evidence
of the records that the work was done between 1539
and 1542, the dates of the marriage and death of
James V., is confirmed.
The design as a whole and the details of its
ornament, the carving on the medallions and on the
caps and bases of the columns, show largely the
influence of the French workmen whom James V.
employed.
At the south-east corner of the quadrangle is
a plain round tower with a conical roof. Of the
east side of the palace which adjoins it only the
inner wall remains, and this is similar in design to
the corresponding front of the south side ; but it
betrays workmanship so much more careless and less
spontaneous that it is evidently an imitation. It
probably represents the work done in 1 6 1 6 in pre-
paration for the visit of James VI.
The foundations of the north side of the palace
can still be traced. Beneath them, to the north, is
a gay coloured garden ; and beyond this there is a
building which once was a stable.
Falkland Palace, for all its ruins, gives an impression
more luxurious, less austere, than any other royal house
in Scotland. It is not only that it lacks the grim
features which recall, in most palaces, the warlike
and dangerous lives of the kings who dwelt in them.
Beyond this it has a richness and a fancifulness which
preserve to it, even in its decay, memories of courtly
pastimes and splendour.
£infi%ow
THERE is no evidence that the site of Lin-
lithgow Palace was ever held by any but the
kings of Scotland. The chief importance of
the house has been derived from the fact
that it stands midway between Stirling and Edinburgh,
within a day's ride of either. As a place of strength it
guarded the road between the two chief fortresses of the
kingdom, or it prevented their connection. It served
as a half-way house those who journeyed from Holyrood
to the palace of Stirling. Moreover, Linlithgow is
situated in a rich lowland country which agriculturally
was even more fertile before its mineral wealth had
been discovered. The palace had importance as the
central place of one of the most profitable lordships
held by the crown.
David I., who reigned from 1124 to 1153, con-
ceded to the monks of Holyrood all the skins of those
rams, sheep, and lambs of the castle of " Linlitcu "
which died. This is the earliest evidence of a building
on the site ; and it is the sum of its history until a
century later. Then the house of Linlithgow is found
to have been put to a use afterwards frequent to it, to
be a dower-house. Margaret the daughter of Guy,
Count of Flanders, and of Isabella his wife, was on her
marriage with Alexander, the son of Alexander III.
and the heir to the Scottish crown, endowed with
the house of " Linlithcu " and its appurtenant rents,
valued at 200 marks. The property constituted part
269
270 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
of the dowry which in 1286 she brought to her second
husband, Reginald (Reynaldus), Count of Gueldres.
Such tenure appears to have implied only the pay-
ment to Margaret of the rents which belonged to
the castle. The castle itself seems still to have been
held by the heads of the government of Scotland.
Thus in 1289 the guardians of the realm dated a writ
from Linlithgow, and in 1291 the keepers of the castles
of Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, and Wigton there re-
ceived their wages from the chamberlain.
In 1293 the attorneys of the Count of Flanders
petitioned John Balliol for the rents of the manor of
Linlithgow. These had been assigned by the Count
of Gueldres and Margaret to her father, and were in
arrears. The attorneys refused to plead as to their
right according to the law of the land ; the king post-
poned his decision until after his return from his ap-
proaching journey to England, that he might have time
to seek the counsel of his friends and familiars, and
his advisers in England and other kingdoms. Even-
tually, both in this year and in the next, orders were
made for due payment to Margaret of Gueldres of
her dower. The property naturally reverted to the
Scottish crown on her death.
In the summer of 1296 occurred the triumphal
march of Edward I. through Scotland. After he had
occupied Edinburgh Castle he moved westwards on the
1 3th of June, and slept that night at Linlithgow Castle.
Next day he continued his way to Stirling ; but at
Linlithgow he left before the castle certain " engines "
well guarded. On the i6th of August, when he was
returning to Edinburgh, he again passed a night in
Linlithgow.
It was probably in this year that Edward received
a petition from the knights of St. John at Torphichen
LINLITHGOW PALACE 271
on behalf of all their English brethren in Scotland.
They stated that it was a great security to English
residents in Scotland to have access to a fortress and
castle in their neighbourhood, in case of the many
accidents which might still arise although the country
was settled. Edward's castle of Linlithgow was only
two leagues distant from Torphichen, and therefore the
knights prayed that he would suffer them to have the
right of entry to it with their goods in times of their
need. He granted their request on condition that
their conduct was favourable to the safety of the castle,
and that its constable had no responsibility for them.
This is proof of a custom of which other evidence
occurs in the history of Edinburgh and Elgin castles,
the use made of mediaeval fortresses by inhabitants of
the surrounding country as places of refuge in times
of danger.
It may be concluded that Linlithgow was tem-
porarily recovered by the Scots after the battle of
Stirling Bridge. In 1300 it was again held by the
English, and the military importance of the place
had been realised by Edward I. He came to Lin-
lithgow in October; on the I3th, St. Edward's
day, he offered in the church ^20, i6s. 8d. A
week later the barons of the English exchequer were
informed that he wished to strengthen with all de-
spatch the tower of Linlithgow. They were directed
to lay especially to heart the business of sending
thither from London, if necessary from the Tower,
and from York, certain cartloads of crossbows, quarrels,
and belts, and a " tour," presumably a piece of artillery.
Meanwhile wages were paid to labourers at work on
the fortifications ; ditchers, carpenters, smiths, masons,
and an engineer. Both smiths and carpenters were sent
from Northumberland. In the following year the work-
272 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
men employed included also masons and quarriers, as
well as woodcutters and carters of timber.
The contention, therefore, of Mr. Ferguson,
advanced in his Ecclesia Antiqua, that Edward's fort
was a mere wooden palisade and earthwork must be
abandoned. There is no reason to distrust Barbour's
description of the peel " mekill and stark." Mr.
Ferguson's other surmise, that there was a stockade
and earthwork which connected the east and west ends
of the church with the loch, has however much pro-
bability, for it is certain that the church was included
in the fortifications. In 1305 the prior and canons
of St. Andrews prayed Edward to give them a new
church of Linlithgow, since he had made of the old
one "a camp and fortalice."
The whole winter of 1300-1 was spent by the
English king at Linlithgow. Payments were made
to men at work on his chamber, and to those who
cut grass for it, presumably for bedding.
In 1302 Sir John de Kingston and Sir Archibald
de Livingstone were appointed surveyors and ordainers
of the works on the fortress. Each of them employed
a clerk ; and there were also the masters of the works.
In September the castle was largely provisioned with
wheat, wine, malt, beans, oats, salt, and sea coal, all
conveyed by water as far as Blackness. The food was
stowed in the church. The sheriff of Lincoln was in
1312 ordered to send wheat, malt, beans, and peas
to Linlithgow Peel. In 1312 the garrison consisted
of the constable, Peter de Libaud, who was also sheriff
of the county, Archibald de Livingstone and his three
shield-bearers, a servant at arms of the king, sixty-eight
shield-bearers at arms, an engineer, a maker of artil-
lery, a mason, a smith, a chaplain, a watchman, forty-
five crossbowmen, and eighteen persons of unspecified
LINLITHGOW PALACE 273
functions. Such was the peel " stuffit weill vith
Ynglis men," which harried all who
" Fra Edinburgh vald to Strevilling ga,
And fra Strevilling again alsua,
And till the cuntre did great ill."
Edward II. was in it during his invasion of 1310.
The capture of Linlithgow was accomplished by
a ruse. Mr. Andrew Lang places it in Lent 1314,
but Barbour, who related the tale in the latter part
of the century, assigns it to the previous autumn.
He describes the fields " fair and vyde " around the
castle, " chargit with corne " which waxed ripe for
" mannys fude," and the trees laden with sundry fruits.
A certain William Bunnok, who was known to the
garrison, concealed beneath a load of hay which he
was to take into the fort, eight armed men, while a
party of Scottish soldiers were stationed in ambush
near the gate. Bunnok's wain was drawn by oxen
driven by a servant ; he himself walked by its side.
The portcullis was raised to admit the hay; the cart
was stopped when it was full in the gateway, so that
the gate could not again be lowered; and then the
driver cut the ropes which harnessed the oxen, at which
signal the men beneath the hay discovered themselves,
and those who had been in ambush appeared behind
them. The surprise was completely successful ; the
garrison offered hardly any resistance, and were put
to the sword.
Bruce subsequently demolished the fort. He
rewarded Bunnok with a grant of lands ; and ever
afterwards the family of Bunnok or Binny bore a
hay wain in their coat of arms.
The constabulary of " Lynliscou " was among the
possessions granted by Edward Balliol to Edward III.
274 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
in June 1334. The town was in the path of the
devastating armies of the war of independence. In
September 1337 it had been totally laid waste and
was uninhabited. The date at which the fort was
rebuilt after its destruction by Robert the Bruce and
that at which Linlithgow was recovered after Balliol's
grant are alike unknown. Perhaps throughout this
period the tower was not restored to a condition of
strength. In the latter and more peaceful part of his
reign David II. leased the park of Linlithgow to John
Cairns, on condition he kept the castle in repair.
In 1370, after David II. had died without issue,
the three estates of Scotland were convened at Lin-
lithgow to choose a king. It is likely that they met
in the castle. A parliament of 1318 had settled the
succession on the descendants of Marjorie, daughter of
Robert Bruce, who married the Steward of Scotland.
Now an opposing claim was put forward by Earl
William of Douglas, but he could not defeat a can-
didate supported by Dunbar, March, Moray, and
Erskine, who held among them the Maidens' Castle,
Stirling, and Dumbarton, the three chief strongholds
of the kingdom. Thus the first Stewart king, Robert
II., ascended the throne. Both he and his eldest son,
the Earl of Carrick, were on several occasions at
Linlithgow Castle, as was Carrick after he had suc-
ceeded to the kingdom as Robert III. This king
spent some money on the fabric.
During the regency which occurred while James I.
was a captive in England ten marks annually were
paid to Angus de Camera for his custody of the castle.
In 1424, the year in which James returned to his
country, the palace as well as the nave of the church
and the town were burnt by night. The king under-
took the rebuilding, and a beginning was made of a
LINLITHGOW PALACE 275
house destined to be rather a residence of the court
than a stronghold.
Heavy expenses were thus incurred between 1425
and 1434. There were one or perhaps two masters of
the works, and the buildings were frequently visited
by James and his consort. The palace must have
been habitable in January 1429, when the king and
queen stayed in it for twelve days. In 1433-34 the
sum of ^37, 1 6s. was spent on "diverse materials
of colours" delivered according to the account of
Matthew, the king's painter, at Linlithgow ; and pay-
ment was made for the tapestry of the palace. It
is to be concluded that the interior decoration was
in progress. Of the existing building the oldest part,
the south-west corner of the quadrangle, is attributed
to James I. The stable of the palace is mentioned in
this period.
In 1408 Albany as regent endowed with an annual
rent of ten marks a priest who should for ever cele-
brate in Linlithgow Castle for the souls of the kings
of Scotland. There is however no evidence of the
existence of a chapel, until in 1412 the payment of
£22, 33. 8d. for the construction of the chapel of the
castle is recorded. Subsequently yearly sums were
expended on bread, wine, soap, and wax for the
chapel, and the stipend of its priest was increased
by one mark.
James I., alone of Scottish kings, established a
mint at Linlithgow.
There is record of the expenditure in 1447-48 of
^3, IDS. on wine and collations for James II. when he
rested at Linlithgow on the road from Edinburgh to
Stirling. An old association of the palace was revived,
when in 1449 it formed part of the dower of Mary of
Gueldres on her marriage to the king.
276 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
The building works continued. Large sums were
spent on the fabric by James II. from the beginning of
his reign until 1451. In 1457-58 there is reference to
a master of artillery and a Teutonic gunner named
Dedrik in the palace, and repairs were executed on a
" great bombard " and other instruments. The ditches
around the palace had been enclosed and mended in
1458. In this reign eels, pike, and perch were sup-
plied from Linlithgow Loch to the king's house-
hold in Edinburgh and Stirling ; a new boat, nets, and
ropes were provided by government for the fishermen,
and there was an eel arch at the exit of the loch.
Soon after her husband's death Queen Mary issued
an order that Linlithgow Palace, her dower-house,
should be prepared for the reception of the fugitive
king of England ; and Henry VI. and Queen Margaret
made some stay there in 1461. On the marriage of
James III. to Margaret of Denmark in 1469 the palace
was granted to her for life, and thus again became a
dower-house.
This king was also a builder of the palace. It is
said that his architect was his favourite Cochrane, who
" at his beginning was bot ane printis to ane maisonne,
and withtin few years became werie ingenious to that
craft and bigit mony stain house witht his hand in the
realm of Scotland : and because he was conning in that
craft nocht efterlang they made him maister maisone,
and ever efter this Cochrane clam higher and higher."
He was slaughtered with other royal favourites at
Lauder bridge in 1481.
In this reign a coracle made of skins was used on
the loch. The lands of Lochside had been included in
the park in 1481.
In 1488, when Angus and his supporters had ab-
ducted from Stirling Castle the prince who became
LINLITHGOW PALACE 277
James IV., they took him with them to Linlithgow.
Thither they summoned their friends, rebels to the king,
and thence they marched to Sauchie Burn. After the
battle they returned to Linlithgow with the prince,
who did not yet know whether he was king, and waited
for news of the king against whom they had fought.
Messengers brought tidings that the two ships of
Sir Andrew Wood were sailing up and down the
Forth, and had sent flat boats to the land, into which
many wounded men had been received. The prince
and the lords feared that James III. might thus have
reached safety, and they set out for Leith, there to
discover the fact of his death.
Under the following August the payment is re-
corded of £$ to Patrick Johnson and the players
of Linlithgow who had performed before the king.
The entry is typical. The most cultured and the
gayest of Scottish kings brought here as to his
other palaces a train of artists and of merrymakers ;
and here, as at Falkland, he often played cards " at
even." He kept at Linlithgow the Yuletide of
1490, and among unknown names of those who
received alms at the festival occurs that of Blind
Harry. The great minstrel was again at the palace
at Easter 1491, when his dole was eighteen shillings.
He must have pleased less than another of his call-
ing, Wat the Songster, who received twenty-eight
shillings at Linlithgow in December 1503. On this
and other occasions St. Nicholas, bishop, was at the
palace ; four years later he was attended there by his
" roughies." His brother of midsummer, the Abbot
of Unreason, danced to the king at the palace in
June 1501. In July 1505 some Italian minstrels
came from Edinburgh to Linlithgow ; next year the
court fool there received a new coat. Among the royal
278 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
servants at the palace were the porters, the ushers
of the hall door, James Lame of the king's pantry,
the master cook and the court cook, the heralds,
and the trumpets. That the king here followed his
taste for chemistry is probably shown in an entry
as to the expenses of a French leech at Linlithgow.
There is less evidence of his outdoor amusements,
but there are some references to his games of bowls,
to his shooting matches at the butts, and to hawking
expeditions. His dogs were brought to the palace,
and on one occasion he received there a present of
two wolves. His piety appears in many records as to
his offerings in the chapel and his alms to the poor.
His foreign relations are reflected in the history
of the place. Here in 1489 he received certain
Danish visitors ; and in the same year, to prepare
for the coming of Spanish ambassadors, he renovated
his wardrobe. Satin cramoisie, blue satin, black
satin, and broadcloth were bought to make doublets
for the king, and blue and green " tartar " of which
to fashion him a " trevass." In 1491 arras was
carried to the palace in anticipation of the arrival of
a French herald. Later in this year James sent from
Tantallon to fetch two guns from Linlithgow. The
palace was part of the dower of Margaret Tudor.
On the loth of April 1512 it was the birthplace
of the prince afterwards James V. Nine days after-
wards his mother there received thirty-six hanks of
gold and eight ounces of sewing silk. She was far
less of a needlewoman than her successor, Mary of
Guise ; but she must have employed herself on
embroidery during the remaining years of her hus-
band's reign, which she spent almost entirely in this
house. Spices were delivered to her in the following
year ; locks were provided for the doors of the spice
LINLITHGOW PALACE 279
house, the wardrobe, and the queen's pantry, and
the queen's oratory was glazed anew.
A gaudy cradle for the prince was carried to
Linlithgow on the Easter day which succeeded his
birth. It was covered partly with English and partly
with Paris scarlet, and was decorated with twenty-
nine ells and three quarters of ribbons, and with a
fustian belt of Milan green. Blankets and " other
necessaries " were made out of sixteen ells of white
material. The little prince was furnished with a coat
of Galloway white, a scarlet coat with sleeves, and a
sleeveless coat.
In the early summer the king, then involved in
the perplexities which culminated in a disastrous war,
held a council at Linlithgow. Afterwards he attended
evensong at the church, " very sad and dolorous,
making his devotion to God to send to him good
chance and fortune in his voyage." There came in
at the church door a man clad in a blue gown, who
was belted with a roll of linen cloth, and booted up
to his calves. On his head he wore only his long
red yellow hair, which hung down to his shoul-
ders and over his temples, and left his forehead
bare. He carried a great pikestaff, and appeared to be
about fifty-two years old. It seems that there was
a crowd of nobles in the church, but the man came
fast forward among them, " crying and speiring for
the king " and repeating that he wished to speak to
him. When he reached the royal desk, where James
sat at prayer, he made slight reverence or salutation,
but bent low over the desk before the king and spoke
thus : " Sir king, my mother hes send me to thee
desiring thee nocht to pass at this time where thou
purposest, for gif thou dost thou wilt nocht fare weel
in thy journey nor nane that passest witht thee ; forther
280 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
she bad thee nocht mell witht no weman nor use
witht their counsel nor lat them nocht tuitch thy body
nor thou theirs, for and thou do it thou will be
confoundit and brocht to shame." As he ended
evensong was almost over : the king paused to con-
sider how he should answer, and Sir David Lindsay
and John English, the marshal, both young men, who
were beside the king as his particular servants, were
about to lay hands on the man in order <c to speir
forder tidings." But in a moment, and in the pre-
sence of them all, he vanished " as he had been ane
blink of the sun or anc whip of the whirlwind."
Pitscottie relates the story as he heard it from two eye-
witnesses, Sir David Lindsay and John English.
Tradition tells that Margaret Tudor awaited news
of the army of Scotland in the octagonal chamber high
up in the south-west tower of the palace, which still is
called Queen Margaret's Bower. Thence she could
keep watch over many leagues of the kingdom, and
could descry at a great distance a messenger who rode
to bring her tidings. It is said that they told her
there of Flodden, that " the flowers of the forest were
a' wede awa." Before the end of September, the
month in which the battle was fought, she was with
the infant king at Stirling.
The portions of the palace attributed to James IV.
are the south side and the architecturally splendid east
side. On the latter, crowned with a triple crown,
stood a statue of Julius II., the pope who gave to
James the consecrated sword, now among the regalia
at Edinburgh Castle. From 1488, when a wright of
Dundee passed to Linlithgow to view the palace work,
until the end of the reign large sums were spent on
the fabric. ^145 were paid in 1492 for the park dike.
In 1511-12 all the windows of the great hall were
LINLITHGOW PALACE 281
completely glazed and fitted with iron work. Much
was done to the chapel : a ship of timber was used to
make for it a roof; it was completely paved, and
masons were employed on the choir. In the last
spring of the reign organs were placed in the chapel
and bound to the wall with great clasps. Sir David
Lindsay boasted that Linlithgow Palace was " ane
patron (pattern) in Portugall or France."
It is in this reign that we hear first of a garden at
Linlithgow. Payment was made in 1488 to a gar-
dener, and thereafter sums were appropriated to him
at intervals for the purchase of seeds. These, when
specified, were invariably the seeds of leeks and onions,
but he is known also to have produced apples. In
September 1505 he bought eight hives of bees ; and
in 1512 it was rendered obligatory for him annually
to supply the royal household with two barrels of
onions, and two firlots (firlotae) of mustard.
Linlithgow is less associated with James V. than
with his father. He paid it, however, at least one
visit in his early childhood, in 1516—17, when certain
minstrels of Stirling came in his train. The palace is
connected with a tragedy which has been rendered
famous by Lindsay's verse. In November 1518, a
certain William Meldrum of Binnis set out from
Edinburgh to Leith with Lady Gleneagles, whom he
wished to marry if he might obtain a papal license.
He had a rival in Luke Stirling, who loved the same
lady, and who had induced his sister's son, the laird of
Keir, to attempt the murder of the laird of Binnis.
With fifty armed men Keir attacked Binnis near the
Rood chapel. He found a tough adversary, who with
the five men of his company slew Keir's principal
servants, and wounded Keir himself to the peril of his
life, as well as twenty-six of his men. But at last
282 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
Binnis was overpowered ; he was thrown to the ground
and left to die. The news of the tumult reached
de la Bastie, then deputy regent, at Holyrood. " He
incontinent gart strike ane 'larum, blew his trumpets,
rang the common bell, and commanded all to follow
him on horse and foot," and hurried " fiercely " to the
place of the fight. Lindsay tells how, when he found
Meldrum lying wounded to death, with his men about
him in like case, he mourned over this ancient com-
rade of the court of France. Then he pursued the
assailants, who reached Linlithgow, took possession of
the palace, and attempted a defence. They were
obliged however to surrender to de la Bastie's siege,
and were carried to Edinburgh where they were
imprisoned in the castle. In March 1522 the queen
mother, Margaret, then the wife of Angus, was at
Linlithgow Palace.
In January 1526, Angus, accompanied by the king,
put down at Linlithgow the Homes and the Kers of
Cessford and Ferniehurst with whom he was at feud.
It is to this affair that a pardon, granted in July to one
who had taken part in a siege of the palace, must refer.
In September a pitched battle was fought at Linlith-
gow, and Angus and Arran defeated the party of
Lennox. Afterwards, Angus and certain Hamiltons,
Homes, and Kers remained at the palace " in great
mirriness," with the fourteen year old king, who was
" sorrowful and dolorous for the tinsal of his kinsman,
the Earl of Lennox, and mony other gentlemen who
had perished by the king's occasion for matter enter-
prised by the king's command. And he feared and
despaired for his own life."
The next important event in the history of the
palace was the visit to it of Mary of Guise, made in
1538 before her entry into Edinburgh. She declared
LINLITHGOW PALACE 283
that she had never seen "a more princely palace," and
stayed in it for a day or two. Throughout the
remainder of her life she was much at Linlithgow.
She was there in March 1539, together with Senat her
fool and the two sisters of the Earl of Lennox. The
wardrobe of the party was replenished at the expense
of the exchequer. The queen acquired a kirtle made
of green Bruges satin, her fool a gown of scarlet and
yellow cloth. For the other ladies black velvet, black
satin, and taffetas were procured, as well as two frieze
gowns and two satin kirtles, all bordered with velvet,
two collars, two bibs, two little collars, and two hats
made by a French tailor.
At Epiphany 1540 Sir David Lindsay's "Satire of
the Three Estates " was presented before the king, the
queen, the " lasses of Linlithgow," and the estates of
parliament. The event was regarded as indicative of
the king's desire to reform the bishops and other
clergy, and as such was reported to the English govern-
ment. After the play the king, to point its moral,
called upon the chancellor, the Bishop of Glasgow,
and on several other bishops to amend " their factions
and their manners of living " ; and threatened, if they
did not comply, to " send six of the proudest of them
to his uncle of England ; and as those were ordered so
he would order all the rest that would not amend."
To this the chancellor replied that " one word of his
grace's mouth should suffice them to be at command-
ment " ; and the king retorted, hastily and angrily,
that he would bestow on them any words of his
mouth that could better them.
Later in the year the palace was the scene of one
of the tragedies of the Stewart kings. Sir James
Hamilton of Finnart was a bastard son of the first
Earl of Arran. At the battle of Linlithgow he took
284 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
Lennox prisoner and slew him in cold blood. Never-
theless he found favour with the king. In the very
year of Lennox's death James granted to him, as
to his " loved familiar," the captaincy of Linlithgow
Palace. He loved him " sa weill and inwardly that
in society of his council oft he called him ; and till
others oft made repetition of his diligence, faith, and
study, that in the palaces of Stirling and Lethquoo
with him sa diligent he had been in repairing them."
He was the king's chief " sewar " or cup-bearer, and
received in 1539 a grant of lands in recognition of his
services. Further he attained to high judicial office
and was prominent among the Catholic party. This
man on the i6th of August 1540 was convicted in
Edinburgh of having had " art and part in the
treachery of shooting arrows and machines without
the palace of Linlithgow and its bell tower" at the
king and persons in the royal train. His motive
appears to have been connected with religious and
family intrigues. The trial was according to the
ancient form : Finnart met in single combat his
accuser and namesake, his cousin Sir James Hamilton
of Kincavel, and was slain. It is said that the king
had wished his favourite to have his freedom untried,
and was ever after this betrayal moody and suspicious.
Next year there is record of a friar who at Lin-
lithgow preached to the young queen, who was " all
papist," a sermon to extol the authority of the Bishop
of Rome, heard by the bishops of Glasgow, Galloway,
and Aberdeen but by no temporal lords.
On the 8th of December 1542, while her father lay
dying at Falkland, Mary Stewart was born at Lin-
lithgow. Some English agents wrote on the I2th to
Henry VIII. that she was "a very weak child and not
like to live, as it is thought." Yet two days later she
LINLITHGOW PALACE 285
became queen ; and Sadler, when he viewed her at
the palace, pronounced her a fine infant.
The chief portions of the fabric believed to have
been built by James V. and Hamilton are the south
porch to the right of which is the guardroom, and the
detached gateway which leads to the town. Over
this gate James placed the emblems of the four orders
of knighthood, those of St. Michael, the Golden
Fleece, and the Garter, given to him, respectively, by
Francis I., Charles V., and Henry VIII., and that of
the Thistle, which he invented or revived himself.
Much other decoration is also attributed to him.
The three niches over the east gate, once the main
entrance, were filled in 1535 with statues of a pope,
a knight, and a labouring man, painted in brilliant
colours. The fountain in the centre of the courtyard
has been ascribed to James IV., but money was spent on
it in 1542. In 1541 the north quarter of the palace
had been propped. Pitscottie states that James V.
" translated " the palace.
Intrigues gathered fast round the little queen at
Linlithgow. In March 1543 parliament decided that
she should remain at the palace, and that a council of
nobles should be her keepers. Meanwhile Argyll
came to the aid of the queen mother and Beaton, as
representatives of the anti -English party, and brought
a band of Highlandmen who lay so long around Lin-
lithgow to guard the queen that all the corn was
destroyed within a distance of a mile. Lennox came
out of France at the bidding of Mary of Guise. He
went from Holyrood to Linlithgow, and thence west-
wards to his own country, and was joined by many
kinsmen and friends. All this alarmed the regent
Arran, who was then of the faction of Henry VIII.
He would with only a small power have gone to Lin-
286 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
lithgow to fetch the young queen, but his advisers
deterred him from such a challenge to Lennox and his
men of the west. Eventually commissioners of either
side met to frame a compromise. The queen's person
was entrusted to four neutrals, Lindsay of the Byres,
Erskine, Graham, and Livingstone, who were directed
to keep her at Stirling at the will of the council.
They passed to Linlithgow to receive her ; and until
she had been delivered to them Lennox remained
at the palace. He had a formidable escort, 25,000
spearmen on horseback, well arrayed "in Scots har-
ness and weapons," marshalled under his great standard,
and 1000 footmen of Bute, Arran,and Lennox. The
two queens were convoyed to Stirling by the followers
of Bothwell, Huntly, and Moray. All earls, lords,
barons, landed men, and other lieges who had in such
warlike manner assembled either at Linlithgow or
Stirling were declared guiltless in parliament at the
end of the year. In 1544, when the English were in
Edinburgh, Arran and the cardinal retired to Linlith-
gow. This was probably the occasion of the employ-
ment in this year of certain gunners extraordinary at
the palace.
The Protestant lords on the 6th of November
1559, having regard to their "mischances," and their
unreadiness for war, removed at midnight from Edin-
burgh to Linlithgow. The English agents wrote to
Cecil that they were about to establish a mint, and
to coin their plate in order to u maintain the word of
God and the weal of Scotland." Probably they occu-
pied the palace.
Queen Mary Stewart visited Linlithgow Palace dur-
ing the progress which succeeded her return to Scot-
land. She arrived on the nth of September in 1561,
and remained for two days. Five years later, in March,
LINLITHGOW PALACE 287
after the murder of Riccio and the flight of Mary and
Darnley from Holyrood, the banished lords " with
dolorous hearts " rode out of Edinburgh to Linlithgow.
There is no indication that they were at the palace.
In the following January the queen was at Linlithgow
on her way from Glasgow to Holyrood, the journey
which preceded Darnley's death. Subsequently in May
she would appear again to have been at the palace
previously to her abduction by Bothwell on the road
between Linlithgow and Edinburgh. This is the sum
of the famous queen's association with the house.
No great works were undertaken on it in her reign.
The most interesting record in such connection regards
the carriage in 1544 of two iron gates from Holyrood
to Linlithgow. There are details as to the keeper-
ship. In this office James Hamilton of Finnart seems
to have been succeeded by Matthew Hamilton, captain
and keeper in 1 543, and by Andrew Hamilton, keeper
in 1545. A concurrent or deputy keepership must
have been held by William Dennistoun, who received
payment for his custody in 1543. In 1550 and in
1554 Robert Hamilton of Briggs was by a grant of
the queen and the regent Chatelherault, principal cap-
tain and keeper of the place, palace, park, loch, eel ark,
peel, and herbage. These offices in 1560 were held by
James Hamilton of Crawfordjohn ; and the Sheriff of
Linlithgowshire was responsible for their profits. The
recurrent tenure of Hamiltons is not remarkable in
view of the high place occupied by that family in the
period ; the office may have been one with which to
content a poor relation. In 1567 Mary granted to
Andrew Ferrier to be keeper of the palace with its
parks, peels, loch, meadows, gardens, yards, orchards,
and appurtenances. He must cultivate the " Brume-
faulds," evidently certain folds enclosed with hedges of
288 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
broom, for the guarding and the pasture of the royal
mares ; and he must plant trees in the peels wherever
needful for ornament, pasture, and pleasure. This is
the first certain instance of the use of the word peel
with its modern significance. It is probably of Celtic
origin, and was a not uncommon mediaeval term for a
castle or tower. At Linlithgow it has come to be
applied to the precincts of the palace. In the charter
to Andrew it was further stipulated that he should
seize all poachers, shooters with the culverin, and
hunters in the loch and the park, and deliver them to
the sheriff and other officers of Linlithgow for appre-
hension and safe keeping until they were required by
royal command. This grant to Andrew was cancelled
a month later in favour of another in like terms to
Robert Melville of Murdocairney, his heirs and assigns.
Thus an hereditary keepership was instituted. The
gardens of which Robert had custody were specified
as " the little garden and the garden." He received
as appurtenant to his office a right of common pasture ;
and was charged to render every Pentecost within the
palace a white penny to the queen and her successors.
About the year 1570 the historian Leslie describes
Linlithgow " decored with the king's palice, a beutiful
temple and a pleasand loch swoming full of fine perches
and others notable fish." Thither in January of that
year the regent Moray rode to his death. His enemies
were the Archbishop of St. Andrews and the Abbot of
Arbroath ; they had suborned for their purpose the arch-
bishop's nephew, John Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh.
He, it is said, had made attempts on the life of Moray
as he travelled from Dumbarton to Edinburgh, both
at Glasgow and at Stirling. At Linlithgow he hid
himself in the lodging of the Archbishop of St.
Andrews, apparently in a room beneath an outside stair
LINLITHGOW PALACE 289
which had a trellis window. He hung damp sheets
over the window to hide the smoke, and was armed
with a hackbut.
Moray received a warning that there was a purpose
to shoot him as he rode through the town. He would
not relinquish his journey to Edinburgh, but at first
thought of leaving Linlithgow by the gate through
which he had entered. Afterwards he decided only
to ride rapidly past the suspected place. When, how-
ever, he set out, at about ten in the morning of the
2 3rd of January, with some two hundred gentlemen
of his company, such crowds had gathered in his
honour that any pace was impossible. Opposite the
archbishop's lodging he was shot through the body.
He reeled in his saddle, then alighted, and returned
on foot to the guard-room of the palace, as though
he felt no pain. There he set his house in order and
recommended the young king to the care of the nobles
who were present ; and when he was reminded of the
lenity he had shown to his murderer, whom he spared
after Langside, he replied that he did not repent of
his clemency. He died at about eleven at night,
" the whilk deid of this prince was sair unto the
common weill of Scotland." His body was taken
first to the chapel royal at Stirling, then to Edinburgh
for burial.
Bothwellhaugh had escaped by a back gate to his
horse held there in waiting for him, the horse of
his uncle, the archbishop, lent to him for the occasion.
He rode fast for Hamilton, pursued by the regent's
men, who however abandoned the chase when they
found " the lave of the Hamiltons " waiting at differ-
ent points of the road to guard their kinsman. The
pursuers returned to Linlithgow and burnt the
archbishop's lodging.
2 90 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
In a fray William, Lord Cathcart, shot one of the
regent's company, the laird of Wormiston, " who was
in all his lyff sa gentill, sa humane, sa kynd, sa hardie
and sa prosperous and happie in all his warres."
The death of Moray was an incident in the struggle
of the parties of the king and the queen : it was
planned by the queen's friends and mourned by
staunch Protestants. The queen's nobles now chose
Linlithgow as the meeting place of a convention to
be held in April : it was in progress on the 23rd
of the month. On the ist of May a fight took
place at Linlithgow between Chatelherault and Huntly,
both adherents of Mary, who led one thousand men,
and fifteen hundred men under Glencairn and Mar.
On the i yth the devastating English army marched
from Dunbar to Linlithgow, where it does not appear
that they received any check. At the end of July
a parliament of the queen's party was planned to
take place in Linlithgow : Elizabeth wrote instruc-
tions to Sussex as to how he should proceed in case
it assembled ; Huntly desired Lord Hay there with
his household, kin, and tenants to meet him, in order
to set forth the queen's authority. But on the morrow
of the day on which Huntly wrote, on the 3ist of
July, Linlithgow Palace had been occupied by soldiers
sent by the regent Lennox, who himself had deter-
mined to go thither and to remain until the day for
the convention of the queen's parliament had passed.
He was followed by Mar, Morton, and others. On
the 6th of August Chatelherault and Huntly were
said to be gathering men with whom they would
come to Linlithgow to hold their parliament ; but
on the yth Lennox left the palace in order to follow
Huntly northwards to his own country. Thus Mary's
parliament had been prevented.
LINLITHGOW PALACE 291
The Marian keeper of the palace, Sir Robert Mel-
ville, had in September 1571 been forfeited for his
adherence to the queen ; and his office was granted
for life to Captain Andrew Lamby, " a rough soldier,
and a determined enemy of the Hamiltons." He
received leave to take for himself or demise to tenants
the fish, grass, hay, and other profits of the palace,
as his predecessors had done. In the following Feb-
ruary he carried off James Kirkcaldy from Blackness
Castle, which stronghold Kirkcaldy had seized, and
brought him, with his men, to Linlithgow, whence he
sent him to Edinburgh. In September the regent Mar
ordered the provost and bailies and the county of
Linlithgow to pay to Lamby the expenses of the
soldiers appointed as a guard for the palace, and to
tax the town for the purpose. When Edinburgh
Castle fell next year one of the surrendering garrison
was Sir Robert Melville, the former keeper of Lin-
lithgow. His life was spared by the regent Morton.
In the autumn of 1575 Morton passed through
Linlithgow as he journeyed from his house of Dal-
keith to visit the king at Stirling. He was escorted
by Lord Claude and Lord James Hamilton, and
met by Lord Livingstone and his friends. Two
years later, in August, Robert Stewart, the brother
of Mary and of the Earl of Moray, was com-
mitted to ward in Linlithgow Palace. His free-
dom was restored to him in the following January.
Morton, with his kinsman Angus, was in 1579 en-
gaged in a raid against the Hamiltons, a vengeance
for Moray's death in which the regent's escort to
Linlithgow of 1575 suffered. In this strife Andrew
Lamby was implicated as Morton's adherent : he
complained in April 1579 that Alexander and James,
the sons of Mungo Hamilton, were seeking his death
292 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
and preventing his free access to Linlithgow Palace.
The accused men were committed for trial. In May
Douglas of Lochleven, Mar, and Buchan, took DrafFen
Castle, and they treated as responsible for its defence
the insane Earl of Arran, and sent him, with his
mother, the Duchess of CMtelherault, to Linlithgow
Palace, to the keeping of the " determined enemy "
of his house. Arran's brother David was there with
him in June.
Lamby fell with Morton. On the I9th of De-
cember 1580, the month of the earl's accusation, all
grants to him of the captaincy and keepership of
Linlithgow were revoked, and the palace was ordered
to be surrendered to Lord Robert Stewart.
In May 1582, the period of the ascendancy of
Lennox which preceded the Ruthven raid, James VI.
and Lennox visited Linlithgow.
On the pth of November 1585 the Douglases and
Hamiltons, who at Stirling had reversed the position
of parties, brought James to Linlithgow Palace. Sir
Cuthbert Collingwood wrote to Walsingham that they
had furnished its halls with the "stuff" of the Hamil-
tons' house of Kinneil : the victorious party must have
prepared for the king's reception with such material
as came to hand. They altered the officers of the
household : the principal charge of the king's person
was given to the Master of Glamis, captain of the
guard. On the ist of December parliament met in
the great hall of the palace ; pardons and restorations
were distributed among the ascendant faction : and
James simulated satisfaction in the change which
had occurred, and was bombastically Protestant in his
speech. On Christmas eve the court left Linlithgow
for Inverleith.
The hereditary keepership of Linlithgow granted
LINLITHGOW PALACE 293
by Queen Mary to Robert Melville, had been restored
to him, perhaps on the forfeiture of Andrew Lamby.
In 1587 Robert, then treasurer-deputy, with the con-
sent of his son, resigned his office to the king, for the
purpose of its regrant in tail male to Lewis Bellenden
of Auchnoul, knight and justice-clerk, a man very
prominent in contemporary politics. The old rent of
a penny at Pentecost, payable within the palace, re-
mained obligatory ; and rents to the annual value of
one hundred marks, and derived from the park and
peel, were assigned to the expenses of upkeep.
In 1588 it was stipulated in a grant of the lands
of Bonnytoun and Blackness, with their coals and other
appurtenances, and of the hereditary offices of bailie
and chamberlain of the county, that the holder must,
whenever coal was taken out of the ground, render
twenty-five chalders, or for each chalder obtained
render ios., to serve the king when he was at Lin-
lithgow Palace.
In January 1588, when Scotland saw before her
the fear of the Invincible Armada, the Catholic lords,
Huntly, Glencairn, Montrose, Crawford, Rothes, Errol,
and Sutherland, and Claude Hamilton and his brother,
convened at Linlithgow. It was said that they hoped
to capture the king's person, and that it was with the
intention of effecting a junction with them that Herries,
with seven or eight hundred horse, advanced within
three miles of Edinburgh. No meeting took place :
the followers of Herries were dispersed, and he rode
to Linlithgow with only ten men. The king sent
emissaries thither to ask the cause of the assembly, to
enjoin Huntly to come to Edinburgh and bring with
him the laird of Criche, who must answer for his
slaughter of a kinsman of the Earl of March. Huntly
replied that he would come only with the escort of his
294 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
friends and forces ; and when he was absolutely com-
manded to obey, on pain of treason, he declined flatly.
Herries was ordered to enter into ward, because he
had without authority raised the king's subjects, but
he refused compliance and " rode his way." He,
Huntly, and others, were on the 6th of February
denounced by a special assembly of the Kirk. The
Catholic lords must have left Linlithgow on the 9th
of April, when the king, with some six or seven score
of horsemen, passed a night there on his way from
Edinburgh to Stirling and the north.
The palace, with the lordship of Linlithgow, and
with the loch, pastures, fishings, mills, coals, coal-
heuchs, and other appurtenances, was by act of parlia-
ment part of the " morrowing gift " of James VI.
to his " dearest spouse " Anne of Denmark : for the
last time in its history it was made the dower-house of
a queen. Formal possession of it was taken in May
1 590 by the admiral of the Danes on the queen's behalf.
In the spring of 1592, before Bothwell's attempt
at Falkland, James was for some time at Linlith-
gow with the chancellor Maitland, so odious to the
Bothwellian party and the queen. He was there
again in October with Maitland and with those
others whose avoidance of the court Bothwell pro-
cured some months later at Holyrood, Home and
the Master of Glamis. The Stewarts on this occasion
all abandoned the court, such was their discontent
with the continued favour shown to Maitland ; and
for the same reason the queen repeatedly refused to
come to the palace. The king sent for Hamilton
and asked him to consent to the banishment of Both-
well ; but Hamilton replied that the earl had been
freely pardoned by the king and acquitted at a trial.
He unconditionally refused his consent and rode away.
LINLITHGOW PALACE 295
Before September 1593 Both well had won and
lost again : his raid on Holyrood had succeeded, the
forces which supported him no longer combined.
On the nth he was forbidden to come near the
king, then at Linlithgow. James at the palace
received leading members of the opposite faction ;
Maitland, the Master of Glamis, and Ker of Cess-
ford, who came with two or three hundred horse.
A guard of fifty horse was committed to Home.
In the succeeding years before James went to
England the court was on several occasions at Lin-
lithgow Palace, but such visits were little distinguished.
The queen in May 1595 lay there " very sick," and
in the previous month there is a rare mention of the
hunting of the king from this house. When the
tumults of Edinburgh drove the court to withdraw
from Holyrood in December 1596, they removed to
Linlithgow Palace.
At Linlithgow, as elsewhere, the ordinances which
forbade hunting within six miles of the palace were
published in 1606, 1607, and other years. The
hereditary keepership was resigned by William Bellen-
den of Bruchtoun, nephew of Sir Lewis Bellenden,
and regranted in tail male on the old terms to Alex-
ander, Earl of Linlithgow, who was the brother of Sir
Lewis's wife. He as keeper wrote to the king on the
6th of September 1607, to inform him that between
three and four o'clock that morning the whole north
side of the palace, the oldest part which had been
propped in 1541, had fallen to the ground. Only
the outside walls remained, and of them that which
faced the courtyard looked as though it might give
way at any moment and demolish the fountain in
its fall. The earl recalled to the king that he had
two years previously warned him of the unsafe con-
296 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
dition of the building, yet nothing had been done
to prevent the catastrophe. He offered to endeavour
that a part of the taxes granted for the repair of royal
houses should be assigned to the fulfilment of the
king's will in the matter. But it does not appear that
James at this time took any steps for the restoration
of this Scottish palace.
In January 1617 the lords of council directed the
Earl of Linlithgow to let out no more of Linlithgow
park, and to preserve and enclose all of it not already
let for the pasture of certain wedders designed to
furnish the royal household. Such order was followed
by a visit of the king to the palace in the ensuing
June ; and it is evident that James at last apprehended
the neglected state of the palace. The rebuilding of
the north side was undertaken.
This work was executed under the direction of
Gideon Murray, master of works ; the architecture
has been ascribed to Inigo Jones. A warrant was
issued in February 1619 for the demolition of certain
old buildings between the new and the old works ;
another in July 1620 for the purchase of 3000 stone
of lead for the roofing of the new work. The
masonry of the north side must therefore have been
practically complete at the latter date ; it bears the
dates 1619 and 1620.
In March 1625 the mending of the roofs of the
great hall, the King's Tower and the Queen's Tower,
and of the chimney heads of these towers was ordered ;
and in 1629 certain sums were spent "for painting
and laying over with oyle cullour, and for gelting with
gold the haill foir face of the new wark."
There is no evidence that there was ever at Lin-
lithgow such careful preservation of game as dis-
tinguishes the history of Falkland Palace : it was not
LINLITHGOW PALACE 297
pre-eminently a house whither the kings went to hunt.
That keen sportsman James VI. took however some
pains to develop the resources of the place in this
respect. He revived the old connection with the
house of Hamilton when he appointed Sir John
Hamilton of Grange, knight, to preserve all hunting
rights appurtenant to the palace within certain dis-
tinct bounds. The duty would appear previously to
have been discharged by the keeper. In 1632 the
warrant to Grange was renewed by order of Charles I.,
who considered this district very proper for hunting
owing to its nearness to the houses in which he in-
tended chiefly to reside during his abode in Scotland.
The measure was one of the preparations for the
king's visit ; at much the same time orders were
issued for necessary repairs to the building, for the
reservation of lodgings in the town, for the impress-
ment of assistants to the royal baxters and pastry-
cooks, for the mending of the bridges between
Cramond and Kirkliston over which the king must
pass on his way to Linlithgow. He rode thither in
July after he had dined at Holyrood, and made
apparently a very short stay before he passed onwards
into Fife.
The keepership was settled in 1640 and 1642 on
George, the son and heir of Alexander, Earl of
Linlithgow. In the deed there is mention of certain
stanks or fishing-ponds of the palace, as well as the
loch. The old annual rent of a penny appears to
have become obsolete, but 100 marks a year were still
appropriated to the upkeep. In this period Lord
Linlithgow lived in the new north side of the palace,
and an interesting document of the year 1648 gives
an inventory of his rather exiguous supply of house-
hold goods. The easternmost bedroom contained a
29 8 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
standing bed, a canopy bed, two wrought chairs, a
stool, a table and tablecloth, a form, and certain
hangings. In another chamber there was a wicker
bed. The plate, which was kept in the pantry, con-
sisted only of a great silver basin, a laver, a silver
salt foot, six silver spoons, a tin basin, and three tin
chandeliers, of which one was broken. There were
also in the pantry the scanty stock of napery, three
dornick and one damask tablecloth, three dozen
dornick and one dozen damask napkins and three
towels ; and a case in which were seven knives and
one fork, as well as a little table and a kist. In
the kitchen there were a dozen great charger plates
and two dozen ordinary plates, two saucers, three
spits, five pots, two pans, one pestle and mortar, a
ladle, a skimmer, a " brander," a frying pan, a " pot
brod," a goose pan, and a pair of standing " raxes."
There were eight beef stands, four herring stands,
and seven little barrels for fish in the larder.
In 1646 parliament and the university of Edin-
burgh took refuge at Linlithgow from the plague.
The estates met in the palace.
The modest household indicated by the inven-
tory of 1 648 was disturbed by the civil war and the
establishment of the Commonwealth. In 1657 the
custody of the palace was granted to Colonel Leonard
Lydcot. In July of this year the house had been
garrisoned by two companies of soldiers. These pro-
bably consisted, in accordance with advice tendered by
Monk to the Protector, of a company of seventy foot,
and another of thirty horse. Certain fortifications
were erected ; evidently the palace was placed in a
state of defence, but there is no record of damage
done to the building.
The old keepers returned at the Restoration. In
LINLITHGOW PALACE 299
1 66 1 and again in 1669 the constabulary and custody
of the palace were ratified in tail male to George,
Earl of Linlithgow. The fortifications set up by
the " Englishes" were in January 1663 yet standing.
The lords of council therefore ordered Lord Linlith-
gow to undertake their demolition, and empowered
him to convene for the purpose the magistrates, heri-
tors, and inhabitants of the town and parish, for
the appointment of a sufficient number of persons who
should do the work under his directions.
James, fifth Earl of Linlithgow, fought for the
Stewarts in the rising of 1715, and was in consequence
attainted and deprived of his keepership with his other
estates in February 1716. It does not appear to whom
the office was at once granted ; it may for some time
have been vested in the crown. At the time of the
'Forty-five, however, a certain Mrs. Glen Gordon
is said to have lived in the palace as deputy keeper.
On the 1 3th of September 1745, the army of
Prince Charles reached the Forth ; and at their ap-
proach Gardiner's dragoons retired upon Linlithgow.
They evacuated it as the Jacobites advanced, and at
six o'clock on the morning of Sunday, the I5th of
September, Charles Edward entered the town. His
army encamped on its east side. He interviewed the
magistrates, and begged them to let all the usual
church services take place ; but cowardice or excite-
ment had got the better of the minister, and he did
not officiate. The prince spent the day quietly in the
palace ; it is said that in his honour Mrs. Glen Gordon
caused the fountain to flow with wine. That evening
the army bivouacked three miles to the west of
Edinburgh, and the prince slept in a neighbouring
house, traditionally on the site of Champfleury, then
Kingscavil.
300 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
In the following January the fortunes of the com-
batant parties were reversed. Lord George Murray,
commanding for the prince, brought his five battalions
from Falkirk to Linlithgow on the ijth. At the
approach of Hawley's troops he returned to Linlith-
gow. The advance guard of Hawley's force, under
Huske, marched on Linlithgow on the same day, the
main body on the I5th, and Hawley himself with
Cobham's troops on the i6th. On the i6th also
Huske went northwards ; Hawley and his dragoons
remained quartered in the palace.
On the ist of February Cumberland on his way
from Edinburgh to Stirling reached Linlithgow, and
he appears there to have passed the night. On that
very night the palace was burnt by the carelessness of
Hawley's soldiers. Probably the weather was bitter,
and there is a story that Mrs. Glen Gordon remon-
strated with Hawley as to the enormous fires which his
men had kindled. He replied that he did not care
though the palace were burnt to the ground, and she
retorted, "Weel, weel, general, an that be the case, I
can rin awa' frae fire as fast as you." Her allusion
was to his rout at Falkirk.
The result was the ruin which now stands in the
place of the palace " magnificently built of polished
stone," which so impressed Sibbald late in the seven-
teenth century. Its keepership was granted in 1777
to the eighth Duke of Hamilton, but is now vested in
the commissioners of woods and forests.
Linlithgow Palace is a good example of the quad-
rangular architecture of the fifteenth century. On
the ground floor a kitchen, a bakery, cellars, guard-
rooms, and stables can be traced. The chief rooms were
all on the first floor. Its east side was chiefly occupied
by the great hall, called Parliament Hall from the
LINLITHGOW PALACE 301
session of several parliaments, which measures 100
by 30 feet. At the north end was the musicians'
gallery; and u screens" or a passage communicated
with the buttery, converted into a kitchen probably
under James VI. The original entrance to the hall
was also near the north end, and it is surmised that a
flight of steps led to it from the courtyard. But these
seem to have been removed and the door disused,
perhaps with the desire for symmetry which dis-
tinguishes work done in the reign of James V. The
da'fs was at the south end of the hall, and its large
window and beautiful fireplace remain. On the south
side of the quadrangle two private rooms of the king
communicated with the hall ; and west of them, be-
yond a passage, was the chapel, of which the deep
pointed windows and canopied niches still show that
it had much beauty of decoration. It had a gallery at
the west end. West of the chapel was an anteroom
of like size to it, beyond which was another private
room. The dining-room, the drawing-room in which
Queen Mary is said to have been born, and the royal
bedroom, occupied the west side of the quadrangle.
The long low mullioned window, high in the wall of
the drawing-room and looking to the courtyard, is
believed to have been inserted in order to give light
to an elaborately carved ceiling. The seventeenth-
century north side was chiefly occupied by a long and
narrow banqueting hall, to the south of which were
several small rooms, probably bedrooms, since in each
was a round closet or garderobe.
Parliament Hall and the chapel were of a height to
engross the second as well as the first floor of the
building. The other rooms on the upper story must
have been bedrooms and sitting-rooms.
The ground on the north and on the west side of
.«^M«V
302 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
the palace slopes down to the loch ; and it is from the
loch that the palace as a whole can best be seen. It
stands against a background of hills, and in the fore-
ground are grass-covered banks, and trees which grow
close to the walls and partly hide them with their
greenery. The scale is impressive ; the more so because,
where distance renders unconspicuous the modern work
of the north side, an effect of singleness of design is
produced. Linlithgow Palace has not, like Falkland,
the beauty of a building which from natural causes
has slowly decayed. It is a gaunt ruin, with the grim-
ness of that which has fallen by a sudden disaster.
Q|5aftnov<if
IT was a strange turn of fortune which led modern
sovereigns of Britain to build a palace near the
site of the castle of Kyndrochit, where their
early forerunners had lived ; and which, after a
lapse of five centuries, again brought kings to hunt
in the forests of Deeside.
The district was included in the extensive territory
of Mar, of which the existence as a place of separate
jurisdiction can be traced from very early times. In
1014 a certain Donald, son of Emin, was Mormaer
of Mar ; and early in the twelfth century Ruadri, first
Earl of Mar, signed the foundation charter of the
abbey of Scone. Between 1214 and 1234 occurs a
grant by Duncan, Earl of Mar, of the church of
" Kindrouch."
The lands of Abergeldie, on the south bank of the
Dee, were part of the earldom. As such in 1455 and
afterwards, while the estates of Mar were held by the
crown, their revenues were recorded in the rolls of
the exchequer. In 1482, James III. granted to his
" beloved and familiar esquire " Alexander of Mygmair
or Mid mar, otherwise Alexander Gordon, second son
of the first Earl of Huntly, the lands of Abergeldie.
Two years later there is record of Alexander in a
further capacity, that of farmer of the lordships of
Strathdee and Cromar; and as such he rendered
annually to the crown £8, 6s. 8d. for " Balmorain,"
and >£io for " Kindrocht." In 1531 the same rents for
303
304 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
" Balmorar " and " Kindroch " were paid by George,
Earl of Huntly, then farmer.
Queen Mary granted the earldom of Mar in 1562
to her natural brother James Stewart, better known as
Earl of Moray ; and in 1564 she conferred on him the
lordships of Braemar and Strathdee by a separate
charter, which specified the lands of Kindrocht or
Casteltoun as part of the former, and, as included
in Strathdee, the lands of " Balmoran," which were
worth annually £15, 48. iod., and three quarters of a
mart, three sheep, eight hens called " lie reik," and
two bolls of oats. They had thus during the previous
thirty years become more profitable to their overlord ;
and, it is to be hoped, more productive.
Next year, in accordance with the finding of an
inquest, John, Lord Erskine, was declared to be rightful
heir to the earldom of Mar. In his favour Moray
resigned the dignity, and to him, as appurtenant to
his title, the lands of Cromar and Strathdee were
granted by charter.
The mesne lords of Highland properties can rarely
be traced, because Highland tenures were recorded
not in documents but in custom. Thus the Farquhar-
sons, who claim to have settled on the Braes of Mar
in the thirteenth or fourteenth century and were
certainly there before the battle of Pinkie, received
charters from the earls only under Charles I. Nothing
is known of the lairds of Balmoral, who held under
the lords of Mar until 1635. Then in a valuation
of lands within the parish of Crathie there is the
entry : " Balmorall pertaining to James Gordon of
Balmorall £88 (Scots); Balmorall pertaining to him
£44 (Scots)."
Since the date of the grant by James III., the
Gordons of Abergeldie had become a leading family
BALMORAL CASTLE 305
on the banks of the upper Dee, rivalled in importance
only by the Farquharsons. The estate of Balmoral
marches with theirs ; and it seems probable that James
Gordon represented a cadet branch of the house, which
had come to be tenants of the lesser property. That
Balmoral never formed part of Abergeldie as held by
the Gordons is certain, because it did not share the
privilege, confirmed to that estate in 1507, of being
distinct and separate from the earldom of Mar.
Alexander, fourth laird of Abergeldie, had a younger
son, James, alive in 1609, who may have been the
holder of Balmoral ; but there is equal reason to
suppose that James Gordon of Balmoral was the
descendant of a member of an earlier generation.
We have some knowledge of the house in which
he lived. The oldest part of the castle of Balmoral
demolished by Queen Victoria was a high rectangular
tower, with a crow-stepped gabled roof surrounded by
a battlemented parapet. A round tower at one corner
occupied the whole height of the building, and had
a conical roof, and at the other angles were turrets.
This severe and solid castle, proportionately very lofty,
its simplicity relieved by slit-like windows, was very
characteristic of Scottish architecture. It may have
dated from the sixteenth century.
Such particulars as there are of life on Deeside
before the eighteenth century concern hunting and
fighting. A grant made in 1632 to a certain Donald
Farquharson of the lands of Camusmakist, in the Brae
of Mar, may be taken as typical of the conditions
under which the tenants of the earls held, at the
period when such were first defined by documents.
Donald must render to Lord Mar at his principal
dwelling-house in the Brae of Mar, called the castle
of Kindrocht, a yearly feu-duty ; the earl reserved
u
306 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
to himself the hunting of deer and roe ; his vassal
was bound to pay suit to the head courts at Kindrocht,
and was moreover liable to a summons to judge those
who hunted deer without leave, or who stole or put
away hawks or their nests within the bounds of Mar.
For these offences, and for the cutting or destruction
of wood, fines payable in marts might be imposed.
Wolves and foxes were classed together as " destroying
beastis " which it was meritorious to kill, and a vassal
who slew a roe while in pursuit of them stood excused.
At every hunting within Mar all vassals must person-
ally attend the lord with eight followers from each
davoch of land, and with dogs and hounds. They
must erect, to accommodate those who took part in
the sport, temporary huts called " lonquhards," and
must supply for each occasion " tinchellis " or scouts.
John Taylor, the water-poet, has left an account of
a hunting of Lord Mar at which he was present
in 1618 : —
" The manner of the hunting is this : five or six
hundred men doe rise early in the morning, and they
doe disperse themselves divers wayes, and seven, eight
or ten miles compasse, they doe bring or chase in the
deer in many heards (two, three or four hundred in a
heard) to such or such a place as the noblemen shall
appoint them ; then when day is come, the lords and
gentlemen of their companies doe ride or goe to the
said places, sometimes wading up to the middles
through bournes and rivers ; and then they being
come to the place doe lie down on the ground till
those foresaid scouts, which are called the f Tinckhell,'
doe bring down the deer ; but as the proverb says of a
bad cook, so these * Tinckhell ' men doe lick their
own fingers ; for besides their bowes and arrows which
they carry with them, wee can heare now and then a
BALMORAL CASTLE 307
harquebuse or a musquet goe off, which doe seldom
discharge in vaine ; then after we had stayed three
hours or thereabouts, we might perceive the deer
appeare on the hills round about us (their heads
making a shew like a wood), which being followed
close by the Tinckhell, are chased down into the
valley where we lay ; then all the valley on each
side being waylaid with a hundred couple of strong
Irish greyhounds, they are let loose as occasion serves
upon the heard of deere, that with dogs, gunnes,
arrows, dirks and daggers, in the space of two hours,
fourscore fat deere were siaine, which after are disposed
of some one way and some another, twenty or thirty
miles, and more than enough left for us to make
merry withall at our rendevouze. Being come to our
lodgings, there was such baking, boyling, rosting and
stewing, as if cook Ruffian had been there to have
scalded the devil in his feathers."
Such must have been the manner of recreation of
the early lairds of Balmoral. Of their other principal
occupation there is evidence in the obligation which
rested on all vassals of the Earl of Mar to attend his
" hostings " at their own expense, and to be present at
his "general musters and weapon schawings" within
the sheriffdom of Aberdeen. The bonds of mutual
support into which some of them are known to have
entered indicate that, apart from their overlords, they
pursued private feuds. Among the archives of the
Farquharsons of Invercauld there is such a bond signed
in 1559. In 1625 some of the Farquharsons agreed
in Braemar church with certain Schaws, for themselves
and all their kin, that, since they all were of one blood,
they would maintain, succour, and defend each other
in every honest and reasonable cause.
In 1666 there was in this district an encounter
308 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
between the Farquharsons and the Gordons rendered
famous by a ballad. The aggressor appears to have
been Farquharson of Inverey, who attacked Gordon of
Brackiey on the road to market. " It is the custome
of that mountanious countrey to go with armes especi-
allie at mercats."
"When Brackiey was busked and stood in the close
A gallanter Barrone ne'er lap on a horse ;
When they were assembled on the Castle green,
Nae man like brave Brackiey was there to be seen.
' Strik, dogs,' cries Inverey, * and fecht till ye'r slain,
For we are twice twenty and ye but four men.'
At the head of Reneaton the battle began,
At Little Aucholzie they killed the first man.
They killed William Gordon and James o' the Knock,
And brave Alexander, the flower o' Glenmuick.
First they killed ane, and syne they killed twa,
They hae killed gallant Brackiey, the flower o' them a';
Wi' swords and wi' daggers they did him surroun',
And they pierced bonny Brackiey wi' mony a woun'.
Frae the head o' the Dee to the banks o' the Spey,
The Gordons may mourn him and ban Inverey."
Before the end of the seventeenth century Balmoral
had passed, perhaps as the effect of an intermarriage,
from one to the other of the contesting families, from
the tenure of the Gordons to that of Charles, second
son of William Farquharson of Inverey and half-brother
of John, called the "Black Colonel," who is the
Inverey of the ballad. These Farquharsons were a
cadet branch of the family of Invercauld.
Charles Farquharson died childless, and Balmoral
was inherited by his cousin James, during whose
tenancy there was a chapel on the estate. This James
was a staunch Jacobite, and appears moreover to have
been closely associated with his Jacobite overlord. It
BALMORAL CASTLE 309
was in this country, on the i6th of September 1715
that Mar raised the standard of rebellion : —
" The standard's on the Braes o' Mar,
Its ribbons streaming rarely,
The gatherin' pipes on Lochnagar
Are soundin' lang and sairly."
Probably James Farquharson was one of those who
gathered beneath it, for he was aide-de-camp to the
earl during the rising. Afterwards he acted as bailie
of the Mar estates under Lords Grange and Dun.
In the 'Forty-five he commanded a battalion of his
clansmen, and occupied the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
He accompanied the prince to England, and after the
retreat of the army, he was wounded at the battle of
Falkirk. This circumstance must account for the
fact that at Culloden the Farquharsons of Balmoral
fought under the leadership of his kinsman Monaltry.
A list of rebels in the district, compiled in 1746, has
the information that James Farquharson of Balmurret
or Balmurle was in receipt of a yearly rental of £40,
that his mansion-house was in very bad condition, and
that he himself was "lurking." He was excepted
from the scope of the act of indemnity to rebels passed
in the next year. His death occurred soon afterwards,
and by it and that of his nephew, Finla Farquharson
of Inverey, the two estates of Balmoral and of Inverey
accrued to the representative of a younger branch of
the family, Alexander Farquharson of Auchendryne.
It appears, therefore, that James Farquharson did not
by his rebellion incur permanent deprivation, although
it is unlikely that he escaped impoverishment. He
was indeed much in debt before 1745. The Jacobite
movement had a lasting effect on the tenure of Bal-
moral in that the overlordship of the Earl of Mar
310 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
ended with his forfeiture after 1715. Whether or not
it was held to pass to the Farquharsons of Invercauld,
who bought Braemar in 1730, or to remain after that
date with the crown, is not clear.
The family who now held Balmoral lived in the
castle, but usually called themselves the Farquharsons
of Inverey. They were distinguished for adherence
to the Roman Catholic faith. At Balmoral in August
1782 died the Rev. John Farquharson, a Jesuit,
" chaplain to his nephew, Alexander Farquharson, Esq.,
of Inverey." He had been a missionary in Strathglass,
and before 1745 ^ac^ made a large collection of Gaelic
poetry which was most unfortunately lost. In 1763
he had been " prefect of studies " at Douay ; and he
had retired to Deeside in 1773. His younger brother
Charles was also a Jesuit, and died in 1799 as m^s"
sionary at Braemar.
Alexander Farquharson was succeeded by his nephew
James. He soon after 1794 removed from Balmoral
to Bruxie in Old Deer, and sold the three estates of
Balmoral, Inverey, and Auchendryne to the second
Earl of Fife.
The earls did not inhabit Balmoral Castle, but let
it. The tenant in 1818, and for several years after-
wards, was a Captain Cameron. In 1837 a lease was
acquired by Sir Robert Gordon, brother to the fourth
Earl of Aberdeen, and a distinguished diplomat. In
1815, 1817, and 1821 he was associated with the Duke
of Wellington as minister plenipotentiary at Vienna ;
and in 1826 he was envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary in the Brazils. From 1828 to 1831
he was ambassador extraordinary at Constantinople ;
and, after ten years of private life, he was sent to Vienna
in a like capacity in 1841. He made great additions
at Balmoral, and converted it into the " pretty little
BALMORAL CASTLE 311
castle " which Queen Victoria found on her first visit.
Modern buildings of some extent, and devoid of parti-
cular character, were erected behind the old tower which
stood to the rear of the gardens. Sir Robert Gordon
enlivened Deeside by his hospitality, and some noted
people were his guests at the castle. There were the
Duchess of Bedford, celebrated for her freedom of
speech, a keen sportswoman who tramped the heather
like a man, and her daughter, the beautiful Duchess
of Abercorn, who is said to have acquired further fame
by her dancing of the " Gille Calum." Another well-
known beauty sometimes at Balmoral was Miss Lane
Fox, a niece of the Duke and Duchess of Leeds who
occupied Mar Lodge for some years. Sir Edwin Land-
seer was a visitor of wider fame. His studies in this
neighbourhood were the material of some of his best-
known pictures.
Thus the manners of a world beyond the glens and
the mountains were brought to Balmoral. The death
of Sir Robert Gordon occurred suddenly at the castle
in the autumn of 1 847 ; and in the ensuing year, Sir
James Clark recommended Deeside as fit by its pure
and bracing air for the residence of the queen. Bal-
moral Castle stood empty, and the remainder of Sir
Robert Gordon's lease was acquired for the crown.
In 1852 the Prince Consort bought the estate for
The first visit of Queen Victoria to Balmoral was
made with the Prince Consort in September 1848.
She has left on record her pleasure in the calm and
solitude, and the grandeur of the country. From that
time until the end of her reign her autumn visits
were annual events, and the practice was continued by
King Edward.
The accommodation of the old castle was insufficient
312 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
for the royal party, and the house was demolished
accordingly, and gave place to the existing building.
On the 28th of September 1853, the queen in person
laid the foundation-stone of the new castle, in the
presence of her children, the Prince Consort, the
Duchess of Kent, and many others.
Balmoral Castle is built of granite quarried on the
estate and peculiarly white in colour. In the distance,
where the crystalline sparkle characteristic of granite is
not perceived, it has the effect of white marble. The
architect was Mr. William Smith of Aberdeen, but he
adopted many suggestions made by the Prince Consort.
The style is that called Scottish baronial ; and the most
striking feature of the building is a rectangular tower
which has at three corners turrets and at the fourth
a round tower, and is very faintly reminiscent of the
ancient castle. The site is a little to the west of that
of the earlier house, further from the birch-covered hill
of Craig Gowan and nearer to the Dee. By this position
a less interrupted view of the valley of the river has
been secured. All the grounds were laid out accord-
ing to the plans of the Prince Consort and under his
direction.
The interior decoration is very simple, and designed
as that of a Highland shooting-box rather than of a
palace. All the woodwork is of unvarnished pitch-
pine ; objects of the chase, Highland weapons and
trophies, and some of Landseer's pictures were chosen
as congruous ornaments for the walls ; and most of
the curtains and carpets are of tartan, the gaudy royal
Stewart or the more sober hunting Stewart.
In September 1855 the queen visited the new castle
for the first time. The building was still incomplete,
and a great part of the suite and most of the servants
were lodged in the old house. She was entirely satis-
BALMORAL CASTLE 313
fied with all that had been done. " The house is
charming ; the rooms delightful ; the furniture, papers,
everything perfection." In August of next year the
royal party found all the work of building completed,
and the old castle gone entirely.
Balmoral is peculiarly associated with the Prince
Consort. The queen described it as his "own creation,
own work, own building." After his death in 1861
her visits became, however, even more frequent. She
began a practice of spending there about a month of
the early summer, generally from the middle of May
until the middle of June, when, since there were none
of the attractions of shooting, she was able to enjoy
much quiet.
She took great interest in local pursuits and cus-
toms ; and was present frequently at games, at the
festivities of her neighbours, rich and poor, at the
Braemar gathering. She was moreover an assiduous
visitor of her tenantry. Her love of scenery and of
the open air led her to make many expeditions into
the beautiful country which lies around the castle.
The house is identified with her domestic interests :
she entertained in it her children with their families,
and other royal personages related to her ; marriages
and births in the royal family were celebrated by bon-
fires on the hillside and by dinners and balls. She was
attended always at Balmoral by a cabinet minister, and
the house received all the great Victorian statesmen,
Beaconsfield, Granville, Russell, Palmerston, Gladstone,
and Salisbury. Earl Russell for several seasons occu-
pied Abergeldie Castle.
At Balmoral in 1852 the queen heard the news of
the death of the Duke of Wellington. On the loth
of September 1855, Lord Granville, then at the castle,
received a telegram from General Simpson : " Sevas-
3i4 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
topol is in the hands of the Allies." A bonfire, which
had been prepared on the arrival, a year before, of a
false report of this success, was lit on the top of the
cairn. " It blazed forth brilliantly," wrote the queen,
" and we could see the numerous figures surrounding
it — some dancing, all shouting — Ross playing his pipes,
and Grant and Macdonald firing off guns continually.
. . . The people had been drinking healths in whisky
and were in great ecstasy." They came afterwards
under the windows of the castle, singing and playing
the pipes, and cheered the queen, the prince, the
emperor of the French, and the downfall of Sevas-
topol.
The British Association in 1859, the year of the
presidency of the Prince Consort, held its annual
meeting at Aberdeen; and a f£te was given to its
members at Balmoral. In cold and showery weather,
while a high and bitter wind was blowing, Highland
games took place beyond the terraced garden on the
west side of the castle. The Farquharson Highlanders
under Colonel Farquharson, the Duffs under Lord
Fife, and the Forbeses under Sir Charles Forbes, with
pipers playing and plaids waving in the wind, marched
first on to the ground. The royal family, who were
dressed in the royal Stewart tartan, occupied the terrace
with the invited guests and certain distinguished mem-
bers of the association, among them Professor Owen,
Sir Roderick Murchison, Sir David Brewster, and Sir
John Bowring. The usual exercises were held, and
the prizes were presented by the queen. It was on
this occasion that the queen heard, from Sir Roderick
Murchison, that the remains of Sir John Franklin's
expedition had been found.
On the 1 5th of October 1867, the queen unveiled
the statue of the Prince Consort erected at Balmoral.
BALMORAL CASTLE 315
At the castle, three years later, the engagement of the
Princess Louise to Lord Lome, now Duke of Argyll,
took place. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh
were received by the queen in 1874.
The queen at Ballater, in September 1876, pre-
sented their colours to the Royal Scots, the regiment
which her father had commanded. The ceremony
was marred by a heavy fall of rain. After the royal
salute the regiment went through the trooping of the
colours, during which the " Garb of Old Gaul," the
" Dumbarton Drums," and, in compliment to the queen,
the " Fille du Regiment," were played by the band.
The queen made a short speech before she handed the
colours to two sub-lieutenants ; and she received from
Colonel M'Guire the old colours, which she promised
to take to Windsor.
It was at Balmoral, in June 1879, that the queen
heard the news of the death in Natal of the Prince
Imperial, at the hands of a band of Zulus. She
travelled south immediately afterwards ; and it was on
this occasion that she crossed the newly-erected and
" marvellous Tay Bridge." " Immense crowds every-
where, flags waving in every direction, and the whole
population out. . . . The provost, splendidly attired,
presented an address. Ladies presented beautiful
bouquets to Beatrice and me." In the succeeding
winter, while a train was crossing it, the bridge col-
lapsed into the river.
In September of this year the Duke and Duchess
of Connaught were welcomed at Balmoral.
Three years later, on the nth of September, the
queen received from Sir John M'Neill a telegram
marked " very secret." She read the words, " Deter-
mined to attack the enemy with a very large force
on Wednesday." After two days of suspense came
3i 6 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
the news by Reuter that fighting was in progress, and
that the enemy had been routed with heavy loss at
Tel-el-Kebir. It was confirmed by another telegram
from Sir John M'Neill : " A great victory ; Duke
safe and well." The reference was to the Duke of
Connaught, who commanded his brigade during the
battle.
These are the chief events of public interest which
were connected with Balmoral Castle in the reign of
Victoria. At Balmoral however she was important
not only as a queen but also as a landowner, and in
this character she did much useful work.
In the early nineteenth century, when there was
no penny post and no widely circulated newspaper,
Crathie and Braemar parishes constituted a truly iso-
lated district. Barren and remote as they were, no
means had been taken to connect them with more
populous centres; and even in summer, when the
snow had melted from the glens, there were few
carriages to enable communication.
The crofters generally farmed from ten to twelve
acres, which yielded barely enough grain for the support
of themselves and their families. They possessed as
a rule a cow, and milk and oatmeal were their staple
food. The more prosperous owned the sheep which
grazed on the hillside, and of which the wool was
spun by the women, and woven into blankets, plaids,
and tartan cloth. Within living recollection only
eleven hundred of the thirty thousand acres on the
estates of Balmoral, Abergeldie, and Birkhall were
arable land ; and these, from the absence of fences,
were liable to the depredations of deer and other
game. Agriculture was very primitive ; and ploughing
was done by hand or by oxen.
Only the dwellings of lairds, the manses, and
BALMORAL CASTLE 317
a few other houses were of stone. The peasant lived
in a " but and ben," a two-roomed hut of unhewn
stones and mud, thatched with heather or broom, and
with an earthen floor. Peat and wood fires gave
plentiful heat ; but the long evenings were lit only
by the old "crusie" lamps which were rather orna-
mental than effective. Windows were little more than
a foot square and were not constructed to open, and
the family slept in box-beds. Parish schools were
here as good as elsewhere in Scotland ; but the
weather and roads made the attendance of children
irregular, and it was common to find persons who
could not write, some even who could not read.
The regular visits of the court naturally brought
more employment and more wealth to the district,
and connected it also with the outside world. But
beyond this, on the royal estates of Balmoral and
Birkhall, and on Abergeldie as leased to the crown,
very much has been done to improve the condition
of the tenantry. Dr. Robertson, commissioner to
Queen Victoria on her Highland property, contri-
buted to "The Prince Consort's Farms," by J. C.
Morton, a chapter on Balmoral : —
"To increase the comforts of his tenants and to
elevate their moral and social condition were objects
steadily kept in view from the time the prince became
a proprietor of Highland property, and they were
pursued with unabated zeal till the end of his life.
Schools were erected and teachers appointed for the
education of the young, and to give a taste for reading
and increase the means of information, an excellent
library, the joint gift of her Majesty the queen and
the prince, was established at Balmoral and thrown
open, not only to tenants and servants, but to all
in the neighbourhood. . . . Comfortable cottages have
3i 8 ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND
replaced the former miserable dwellings ; farm offices,
according to the size of the farms, have been erected ;
money has been advanced for the draining, trenching,
and improvement of waste land ; new roads have been
opened up and old ones repaired ; fences have been
renewed, and upwards of one thousand acres of unre-
claimable land planted. But it was not to agricultural
improvements alone that his royal highnesses atten-
tion was directed ; he saw the advantage of encourag-
ing tradesmen and labourers of good character to settle
upon his estates. Houses and gardens, with a croft
where it could be conveniently added, were provided
at a moderate rent, and the extensive works thus under-
taken were carried on over a series of years, so as to
give constant employment."
The policy of the prince was continued by Queen
Victoria and King Edward.
A.
ABERDEEN, Bishops of. See Cunning-
ham, Dunbar
Castle, 16, 17, 23, 24,25,
29, 32
Matthew, Bishop of, 49
Aberfeldy, 46
Abergeldie Castle, 6, 8, 45, 313
lands of, 313
Abernethy, 14
Patrick of, 220
William of, 220
Achmowtie, John, 118
Aelred, Abbot, 15
Albany, Duke of. See Stewart
Albemarle, Earl of. See Keppel
Albert, Prince Consort, 45, 311-
3i8
Alexander I., 13, 147
II., 16, 49, 148
III., 14, 16, 17, 49, 66, 148
Ancrum, Battle of, 183
Angus, Earl of. See Douglas
Annandale, Earls of. See Murray
Lord of. See Stewart
Anne, Queen of James VI., 99, 242,
294
Arbroath, Abbot and Lord of. See
Hamilton
Argyll, Earls and Dukes of. See
Campbell
Countess of. See Stewart
Armstrong, Andrew, 81
Arran, Earls of. See Hamilton and
Stewart
Arundel, Earl of. See Howard
Athol, Duke of. See Murray
Earl of. See Stewart and
Murray
Aubigny, Lord of. See Stewart
Auchincraw, George, 103
Patrick, 103
Avondale, Lord. See Stewart
Ayr Castle, 17, 23
Margaret Mure's house in, 28
BACON, Sir Francis, Lord Bacon, 115
Balfour, David, 259
Sir James, 40, 190
John de, 245
Ballater, 315
Balliol, Edward, 53, 220, 221, 273
John, 51, 52, 220
Balmerinoch, Lord. See Elphinstone
Balmoral Castle, 6, 303-318
Bannatyne, Patrick, 85
Bannockburn, Battle of, 153
Barbour, John, 273
Barclay, William, 246
Basset, Ralph, 51
Bastie, De la, 72, 78, 282
Beaconsfield, Earl of. See Disraeli
Beaton, Cardinal David, 181, 183, 234
285
Elizabeth, 264
James, Archbishop of St.
Andrews, 72
Archbishop of St.
Andrews, 231,245
of Creich, 244, 245,
246, 248
Beaton, Robert, 246
Beauchamp, Guy, Earl of Warwick, 151
Bedford, Earl of. See Russell
Bellenden, Adam, Bishop of Dunblane,
118, 121
Lewis, 293, 295
William, 295
Berwick, 14, 15, 19, 24, 51
Bethune. See Beaton
Bickerton, Andrew, 254
Bisset, William, 153
319
320
INDEX
Blackness Castle, 183, 291
Blakburne, John, 240
Blakeney, General, 212
Boroughmuir, 53
Borthwick, Lady, 68
William, Lord, 176
Bothwell, Baron. See Ramsay
Earls of. See Hepburn,
Stewart
Lady. See Kennedy
Bower, Walter, 25
Bowes, Robert, 244
William, 203
Bowring, Sir John, 314
Boyd, Sir Alexander, 59, 159
Robert, 36
— — Robert, Lc
..ord Boyd, 90
Braemar Castle, 24
- Lordship of, 304
Breadalbane, Earls of. See Campbell
Brechin, Bishops of. See Hepburn,
Lindsay
Bretaigne, John de, 151
Brewster, Sir David, 314
Brienne, Comte de, 186
Brown, Sebastian, 89
William, 252
Bruce, Christian, Countess of Mar, 20,
28
Bruce, David. See David II.
Edward, 153
Mr. John, 265
Sir Harry, 206
Margery, 30, 274
Nigel, 20
Robert. See Robert I.
Master Robert, 101
- Sir William, 128, 142
Buccleuch, Dukes of. See Montague,
Douglas
Buchan, Earls of. See Comyn, Douglas
Lady, 20
William of, 149
Buchanan, Andrew, 209
George, 189, 192, 194
Buckingham, Earl of. See Villiers
Bullok, William, 53
Bunnok, William, 273
Burntisland, 80
Burns, Robert, 46
Bute, 29
Marquess of.
Stuart
Butler, James, Lord Thurles, 37
See Crichton-
Butler, James, Duke of Ormond, 37
Byset, Sir Thomas, Earl of Fife, 221
C.
CADZOVV, 14, 20
Cairns, John, 274
Calderwood, 234, 252
Callipeir, Admiral, 242, 294
Cambuskenneth, 24
Camera, Angus de, 274
Cameron, Captain, 310
Campbell, Archibald, 2nd Earl of
Argyll, 228
4th Earl of
Argyll, 181,
234, 285
5th Earl of
Argyll, 40,
187, 236
7th Earl of
Argyll, 202
8th Earl of
Argyll, 44,
123, 207
9th Earl of
Argyll, 34
Lord Lome, 44
Colin, 1st Earl of Argyll, 34
3rd Earl of Argyll,
34, 177
6th Earl of Argyll,
93, 194, 197, 238
George Douglas, 8th Duke
of Argyll, 315
Jean, Countess of Argyll, 86,
187
John, 2nd Duke of Argyll,
210
John Douglas, 7th Duke of
Argyll, 142
John, ist Earl of Breadal-
bane, 134
John, 5th Earl of Breadal-
bane, 142
Robert, 78
Camusmakist, 305
Canonbie, 32
Carberry Hill, Battle of, 90
Cardross Castle, 21, 22, 23, 35
Carey, Sir Henry, Viscount of Falkland
in Fife, 257
Robert, 42, 109
INDEX
321
Carlisle, Bishop of. See Kirkby
Carrick, Earl of. See Stewart
Cathcart, Charles, Lord Cathcart, 138
William, Lord Cathcart, 94,
290
Cawdor family, 20
Champfleury alias Kingscavil, 299
Charles I., 42, 118-124, 206, 257-259,
297
II., 43, 208, 260
Comte d'Artois, later Charles
X. of France, 139, 141
Chateau Gaillard, 23
Chatelar, 80
Chatelherault, Due de, 83, 236, 287,
290
Duchesse de, 292
Chillingham Castle, 230
Chisholm, James, 241
William, Bishop of Dun-
blane, 90
Clackmannan Castle, 15, 20
Clare, Richard de, Earl of Gloucester,
50
Clark, Sir James, 311
Clepen, John, 253
Clokbuis or Corpans, Sir John, 63
Cobham, Baron. See Temple
Cockburn, Colonel John, 207
Cochrane, Robert, 276
Sir William, Lord Cochrane
of Dundonald, Earl of
Dundonald, 36
Collingwood, Sir Cuthbert, 292
Colville, John, 103, 104, 298
Robert, of Cleish, 91
Comyn, Alexander, Earl of Buchan, 148
Walter, Earl of Menteith, 148
Connaught, Arthur, Duke of, 315
Constantine II., 9
Convers, Sir Alexander, 151
Cope, Sir John, 137, 211
Coupar Angus, 32
Couper, William, Bishop of Galloway,
117, 204
Cowie, 17, 24, 25
Craigingalt, 252
Craigmillar Castle, 38-41
Crail Castle, 17
Crathie, 304, 316
Cranstoun, 252
John, 103
Patrick, 81
Thomas, 103
rawford, Earls of. See Lindsay
rawford, Thomas, 190
Crichton, Edward, Lord Crichton of
Sanquhar, 1 88
George, Bishop of Dunkeld,
72, 177
Walter, 27, 57, 157
Stuart, John Patrick, Mar-
quess of Bute, 265,
266
Lord Ninian, 265
romar, 303
romarty Castle, 17
Cromwell, Oliver, 44, 124, 208, 261
fumy, Patrick, 103
luin Belachoir Palace, 9
Culdees, 14
Cullen. See Invercullen
Culloden, Battle of, 309
Cumberland, Duke of, 138, 213, 300
Cunningham, Alexander, Earl of Glen-
cairn, 91, 188, 190, 290
David, Bishop of Aber-
deen, 203
James, Earl of Glencairn,
198
William, 4th Earl of
Glencairn, 182
William, 9th Earl of
Glencairn, 261
Cupar, 23, 24
Curry, Walter, 53
D.
DACRE, Ralph de, Lord of Gillesland,
Thomas, Lord Dacre, 19
Dagworth, Nicholas, 24
Dalkeith, 142
Darcy, Norman, 150
Darnaway Castle, 31, 35
Darnley, Henry. See Stewart
David I., 2, 14, 16, 48, 66, 147, 219,
269
II., 2, 20, 22, 23, 54, 55, 63, 64,
67, 221, 274
son of James II., 36
Davidson, John, 102, 239
Defoe, Daniel, 44, 261
Dennistoun, William, 287
Despenser, Hugh le, 151
Dingwall Castle, 17, 20, 30
322
INDEX
Ding wall, Barons of. See Keith
Elizabeth, Baroness, 37
Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beacons-
field, 313
Donald V., Mac Al pin, 9
Donald, son of Ermin, Mormaer of
Mar, 303
Donald Bane, King of Scotland, 13, 48
Dores Castle, 17
Douglas Castle, 220
Douglas, Archibald, 177, 178, 199
5th Earl of Angus,
161, 228, 276
6th Earl of Angus,
72, 175, 177,
181, 246, 282
8th Earl of Angus ,
94, 95. 97, 190,
195, 198, 201,
241, 291
4th Earl of Doug-
las, 222
Lord of Gal lo way ,
67
Earl of Moray, 31
Christian, 93
Gavin, 171
George, 177, 198, 231
son of Earl of Angus,
85
Hugh, Earl of Ormond, 159,
179
James, 159
Lord James, 21, 22
Sir James, 19
James, of Loch Leven, 292
Parkhead, 231
3rd Earl of Morton, 72,
176
4th Earl of Morton, 85,
93, 1 88, 190, 192,
195, 197, 238, 290,
291
Lord of Spot, 103, 243
Master of, 159
Margaret, 102
— Robert, Earl of Buchan, 193,
292
William, 9th Earl of Angus,
100
1st Earl of Douglas,
67, 274
6th Earl of Douglas,
28,58
Douglas, William, 8th Earl of Douglas,
59, 158
6th Earl of Morton,
1 06
7th Earl of Morton,
116
Knight of Liddes-
dale, 53, 221
Sir, of Lochleven,
106, 193
the elder, 54
Doune Castle, 8, 25, 27, 29, 32, 35
Lord. See Stewart
Draffen Castle, 292
Drummond Castle, 165
James, 209
Duke of Perth, 136
Earl of Perth, 131
John, Lord Drummond, 176
Margaret, 165
Drury, Master Michael, 234
Du Croc, 93
Duddingstone, 137
Duff, James, 2nd Earl of Fife, 310
James, 5th Earl of Fife, 314
Dumbarton Castle, 17, 25, 32, 95
Dumfries Castle, 17
Dun, Lord. See Erskine
Dunbar, 62
Earl of. See Home
Elizabeth, 31
Gavin, Bishop of Aberdeen,
177
Archbishop of Glas-
gow, 72, 283
George de, Earl of Maule, 274
John de, Earl of Fife, 221
Earl of Moray, 274
Patrick de, Earl of Dunbar, 50
William, 32, 33, 70, 167, 173,
230
Dunblane, Bishops of, 121, 221. See
Bellenden and Chisholm
Duncan, 13
Dundas, John, 62
Dundee Castle, 17, 23, 25, 32
Dundonald Castle, 24, 29, 36
Earl of. See Cochrane
Dunipace, 104
Dunfermline Abbey, 10
Earl of. See Seton
Palace, 5, 9, 13, 22, 23,
24, 25, 30, 33, 41-45,
48, 147
INDEX
323
Dunfermline, Queen's house in, 42, 44
Prior of. See Forman
Dun Fother. See Fort Teviot
Dunoon Castle, 28, 34
Dupplin, Battle of, 220
Sir William of, 152
Durris, 17
— Castle Hill, 17
Durward, Alan, 50, 148
Dysart, 28
E.
EDGAR, King of Scotland, 13, 48
Edinburgh, 9, 41
Blackfriars Yard, 92
Canongate, 66, 84, 87, 91,
100, 114, 119, 126, 245
Castle, or Maidens' Castle,
15, J7, 30, 39. 47-66,94
Castle Hill, 66
College, 115, 133
St. Cuthbert's Church, 48
— Davy's Tower, 55, 64
St. Giles's Church, 79, 81,
83*91,96,103, 109, 119,
126
Half-Moon Battery, 55, 64
High School, 132
Jesuits' College, 132
— Lady Yester Kirk, 132
Long Gait, 121
St. Margaret's Chapel, 48,
52, 55, 64
St. Mary's Chapel, 55
Nether Bow, 66, 93, 114,
119,254
Royal Theatre, 140
Tolbooth, 98, 112, 126
Wellhouse Tower, 54
West Port, 93, 108
Duke and Duchess of, 315
Edmonstoun, Lady, 68
Edward I., 14, 16, 20, 22, 51, 150, 270
II., 273
III., 53, 154
VII., 45, 142,311
son of Malcolm Canmore, 48
Eglinton, Earl of. See Montgomerie
d'Elbreuf, Rene, Marquis, 76
Elbottle, 14
Elcho, Lord. See Wemyss
Elgin Castle, 16, 17, 20, 28, 29, 32
Elizabeth, Queen of England, 20
Elizabeth, Queen of Robert I., 20, 25
— Robert II., 224
daughter of James VI., 41,
107
Elphinstone, Alexander, Lord, 115,
255
Master of,
255
Sir George of Blythwood,
255
James, Lord Balmerinoch,
37, 255
John, Lord Balmerinoch,
124
English, John, 280
Errol, Earl of. See Hay
Erskine, Alexander, Master of, 192,
194
Annabella, Lady Mar, 188,
193, 202
Sir Arthur, 88
Charles, Earl of Mar, 209, 210
Sir Charles, 127
^ vid, Lord Dun, 309
j c^mes, 102, 106
Lord Grange, 309
John, of Dun, 81
Lord Erskine, 206, 304
5th Lord Erskine, 176,
183, 185, 234, 286
6th Lord Erskine, 188
1 7th Earl of Mar, 90,
91,92, 192, 290, 291
1 8th Earl of Mar, 93,
160, 194, 197, 200,
204, 241, 251, 305
1 9th Earl of Mar, 206
20th Earl of Mar, 125,
209
22nd Earl of Mar, 211,
309
Ethelred, son of Malcolm Canmore, 48
Eugenie, Empress, 45
Euphemia, Queen of Robert II., 55
F.
FAIRLIE, Walter, 54
William, 242
Falaise, Treaty of, 15, 49
Falkirk, Battle of, 220
Falkland Palace, 3, 5, 8, 25, 30,
104, 218-268
324
INDEX
Falkland Palace, Cadger's Gait, 265
Castlested, 245, 263
King's Falconer's
House, 255
St. Thomas' Chapel,
230
in Fife, Viscount of. See
Carey
Farquharson, Alexander, 309, 310
Charles, 308, 310
Colonel, 314
Donald, 305
Finla, 309
James, 308, 310
John, 308
Rev. John, 310
William, 308
Fentoun, Thomas, no, in
Ferguson, Mr., Ecclesia Antigua,
272
Fernie, Andrew, 236, 247
William, 247, 263
or Logan, Barbara, 247
Ferrier, Andrew, 287
Fife, Earls of. See Byset, Duff, de
Dunbar, Macduff, Ramsay,
Stewart
Duke of. See Duff
Fitz Rubald, Alan, 49
Fitz Waryn, Sir William, 150
Flanders, Guy, Comte de, 269
Fleming, John, Lord Fleming, 79,
90
Malcolm, 58
Robert, 59
Flodden Field, 72, 280
Forbes, Sir Charles, 314
John, 199
Lord Forbes, 177
Fordun, John of, 9
Forfar Castle, 16, 18, 20, 24
Forman, Andrew, Bishop of Dunferm-
line, 175
Forres Castle, 1 6, 17, 20
Forrest, Thomas, 183
Fort Teviot, alias Dun Fother Palace,
9
Franklin, Sir John, 314
Fraser, James, 220
Simon, 220
William, 53
Frederick, Prince of Hesse, 138
Froissart, 22
Fyvie, 29
G.
GALLOWAY, Bishop of, 172, 177
See also Couper
Patrick, 203
Gardiner, Colonel James, 299
Gascoyne-Cecil, Robert, Marquess of
Salisbury, 313
Gaunt, John of, 67
George IV., 140
Gilmour, Sir John, 39
Gladstone, W. E., 313
Glamis, Lord. See Lyon
Glasgow, 14, 24
Archbishops of. See Beaton,
Dunbar, Patterson, Spottis-
woode
Glenalmond, 24
Glencairn, Earl of. See Cunningham
Glenconglas, 24
Glendinning, Sir Simon, 159
Gleneagles, Lady, 281
Glenfinlas Forest, 27, 29
Gloucester, Earls of. See de Clare,
Monthermer
Duke of. See Plantagenet
Gordon, Alexander, 303
Earl of Huntly, 32
Earl of Sutherland,
293
George, 4th Earl of Huntly,
181, 286
— — 5th Earl of Huntly,
40, 87, 90, 187, 190,
290
6th Earl of Huntly,
238, 248, 250, 293
Marquess of Huntly,
204, 255
Mrs. Glen, 299, 300
James, 304
Lady Jean, 85
John, Earl of Sutherland, 125
Lady Katherine, 164
Mirabelle de, 212
— Sir Reginald, 45
Sir Robert, 310
Gowrie, Earls of. See Ruthven
Graham, Captain, 134
James, Earl of Montrose, 124,
125
Marquess of Montrose,
125
INDEX
325
Graham, Jock, 241
John, Earl of Montrose, 93,
100, 109, 194, 201, 238, 292
Robert, 155
William, Earl of Montrose,
185
Lord Graham, 286
Grahamstown, Sir William of, 159
Grange, Lord. See Erskine
Granville, George, Earl Granville, 313
Gray, Edward, 230
Patrick, Lord Gray, 159
Master of Gray, 200,
243
Gueldres, Reginald, Comte de, 270
Guthrie, James, 134
H
HADDINGTON, 25
Haig, William, 253
Hallforest Castle, near Kintore, 17,
20
Hamilton, Alexander, Duke of, 142
son of Mungo,
291
Andrew, 287
Claude, Lord, 191, 291, 293
Douglas, Duke of, 300
Gavin, 237
James, son of Mungo, 291
of Crawfordjohn, 287
of Finnart, 180,283,
287
of Kincavel, 284
— 4th Duke of, 136
— 6th Duke of, 137
2nd Earl of Arran,
72, 175, 176, 177,
282
3rd Earl of Arran,
75, 78, 83, 181,
184, 235, 237, 285
4th Earl of Arran,
95, 96, 198—200,
292
Lord, 291, 293
Marquess of, 1 21,
122, 123, 128
John, of Bothwellhaugh, 288
Sir John, of Grange, 251,
297
John, of Samuelstown, 103
Hamilton, Lord John, Abbot of Ar-
broath, 90, 186, 288
John, Archbishop of St.
Andrews, 90, 92,
184, 187, 236, 288
Marquess of, 100
Matthew, 287
Sir Patrick, 63, 69
Robert, of Briggs, 287
William Douglas, Duke of,
125
Earl of Lanark, 123
Hailes, Lord, 13
Hay, Francis, Earl of Errol, 250, 293
George, Earl of Kinnoul, 123
John, Lord Hay of Yester, 177
William, Earl of Errol, 121
Lord Hay of Yester, 98,
290
Henry II., 15, 147, 219
- HI-, 49
- IV., 56
VI., 276
VII., 165
VIII., 75, 181
son of David I., 49, 219
son of James VI., 109, 203
Hepburn, John, Bishop of Brechin, 177
James, Earl of Bothwell, 40,
78,84,85,87,89,90,187,
188, 237, 287
Patrick, 245
ist Earl of Bothwell,
228
3rd Earl of Both-
well, 177, 181, 286
Herbert, William, Earl of Pembroke,
115
Herries, Lord. See Maxwell
Holburne, Major, 207
Holstein, Duke of, 204
Holyrood, Abbey of, 66
Abbot of, 56
Monks of, 48, 269
— Palace, 3, 5, 8, 66-144
Chancellor Mait-
land's Kitchen,
133
Chapel, 72
Garden of St. Anne,
no
of Siege of
Troy, in
New Frater, 1 1 1
326
INDEX
Holyrood Palace, Sir Roger Ashton's
Chamber, 113
Home, Alexander, 105
Earl of Home, 97,
294
ist Lord Home, 161
3rd Lord Home, 175
5th Lord Home, 93,
1 88
George, Earl of Dunbar, 262
- Robert, 103
Hooke, Colonel, 136
Hope, John, Earl of Hopetoun, 138
Horsley, John, 230
Howard, Thomas, Earl of Arundel, 115
Earl of Surrey, 19
Lord William, 178
Hume, Alexander, 163
Hunt, Mr., 44
Huntly, Earls and Marquess of. See
Gordon
INCHKEITH, 53
Inchmahone, 184
Indulf, King of Scotland, 48
Inglish, John, 69
Invercullen or Cullen, 17, 23
Invergowrie, 13
House, 14
Menzieshill, 14
Inverness Castle, 17, 20, 24, 25, 28,
29, 32
Inverkeithing, 23, 24, 44
Irvine, 25
J.
JAMES I., 3, 19, 25, 26, 34, 56, 67,
155, 223, 274
II., 3, 19, 27, 31, 36, 67, 156,
1 60, 224, 275
III.. 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 39, 59,
68, 160-162, 176, 303
— IV., 3, 30, 31, 34, 36, 62, 69,
162, 175, 227-231,277
V., 23, 35, 36, 39, 73, 131, 175-
180, 231-234, 275
VI., or I., 5, 38, 41, 65, 89,
93-118, 186-205, 238-257,
292-297
James VII., or II., 132
Duke of York, 129
Jane, Queen of James I., 156
Jedburgh, 15, 17, 19, 24, 32
Joachim of Kynbuk, 53
Johanna, Queen of Alexander III., 18
- David II., 23
John, King of England, 148
Johnson, Patrick, 277
Johnston, Archibald, Lord Waristoun,
43
Johnstone, Mr. Hope, 38
Jones, Inigo, 296
K.
KEIR, James, 209
Keith, Agnes, 79
Andrew, Lord Dingwall, 37, 97
Robert, Abbot of Deer, 37
Sir Robert de, 20
— William of Delny, 37
Kennedy, Sir Gilbert, Lord Kennedy,
60
Janet, Lady Both well, 31,165
John, 155
Lord Kennedy, 31
Kenneth I., MacAlpin, 8, 47
Kent, Duchess of, 312
Keppel, William Anne van, Earl of
Albemarle, 138
Ker, Andrew, 85
Sir Robert, of Cessford, 204, 295
Earl of
Roxburgh,
120
Thomas, of Ferniehurst, 191
Kerr, Robert, Earl of Lothian, 114
Sir William, Earl of Lothian, 43,
44, 260
Kettins, 17
Kildrummy Castle, 16, 20, 23
Killigrew, Henry, 189
Kilmarnock, 29
Dean Castle, 30
Kincardine Castle, 17, 1 8
Kinclevin Castle, 16, 20, 32
Kinghorn, 51
Kingscavil. See Champfleury
Kingston, Sir John de, 272
Kinloch, Henry, 84, 100
Kinneil, 124
Kinninmont, James, 259
INDEX
327
Kinnoul, Earl of. See Hay
Kinross, 148
Kintore, 17
Kirk-o'-Field, 89
Kirkcaldy, James, 291
William, of Grange, 79, 91.
92, 190, 234, 237
Kirkby, John, Bishop of Carlisle, 53
Kirkcudbright Castle, 17, 29
Kirkwall Castle, 29
Knox, John, 77, 79, 81, 236
Kyndrochyt Castle, 24, 303, 305
I
LAMBERTON, Bishop of St. Andrews, 21
Lamby, Captain Andrew, 291
Lanark, 32
Earl of. See Hamilton
Lancaster, Earl of. See Plantagenet
Landseer, Sir Edwin, 311
Lanercrost, Chronicle of, 51, 149, 150
Lang, Andrew, " History of Scotland,"
252, 273
Robert, 57
Laud, Thomas, Archbishop of Canter-
bury, 115, 121
Lauder Bridge, Battle of, 62, 276
William, 159
Learmonth, William, 103
Leith Palace, 26, 34
Town, 30
David Falconer's Inn, 34
Lennox, Dukes and Earls of. See
Stewart
Duncan, Earl of, 155
Lesley, John, Bishop of Ross, 90
Leslie, Andrew, Earl of Rothes, 238, 293
George, Earl of Rothes, 177, 234
John, 6th Earl of Rothes, 43
7th Earl of Rothes, 127
Duke of Rothes, 130
Norman, Master of Rothes, 235
Lethington. See Maitland
Libaud, Peter de, 272
Lindores Abbey, 223
Lindsay, Alexander, Earl of Crawford,
158
Lord Spynie, 104
Christian, 117
David, 102, 239
(the poet), 71, 73, 174,
230, 280, 281, 283
Lindsay, Sir David, 54
— of the Mount, 234
— Lord Lindsay of
Balcarres, 43
David, 8th Earl of Crawford,
72, 176, 234
loth Earl of Crawford ,
90, 190
nth Earl of Crawford,
193, 201, 238, 293
Sir Jerome, 118, 121
John, Lord Lindsay of the
Byres, 234, 286
Earl of Crawford, 125,
260
Patrick , Bishop of Brechin, 1 2 1
Lord Lindsay of the
Byres, 88, 91, 93,
94, 188, 198
Master of Lindsay, 76
Linlithgow, Earls of. See Livingstone
Palace, 3, 5, 8, 17, 59, 71,
97, 109, 269-
302
King's Tower, 296
Parliament Hall,
300
Queen Margaret's
Bower, 280
Queen's Tower,
296
Livingstone, Alexander, 199
Sir Alexander, 57, 156
— 5th Lord
Living-
stone,
183,286
7th Lord
Living -
stone,
100
— Earl of
Linlith-
gow,295
Sir Archibald de, 272
George, Lord Livingstone,
297
Earl of Linlith-
gow, 299
— James, Earl of Linlithgow,
299
William, Lord Living-
stone, 90, 93, 237, 291
Loch Adhbha, 9
328
INDEX
Loch Kilkerran, 30
Lochleven Castle, 91, 106, 195
Lochmaben Castle, 28, 32, 38
Lockhart of Lee, Colonel, 261
Logan, Barbara. See Fernie
Logic, Margaret, 23, 154
Logierait Castle, 25
Lordscairnie Castle, 234
Lome, Lord. See Campbell
Lorraine, Due de. See d'Aumale
Lothian, Earls of. See Kerr
Louise, Princess, Duchess of Argyll, 315
Lundie, John, 245
Lydiot, Colonel Leonard, 298
Lyon, Elizabeth, Lady Glamis, 68
John, Lord Glamis, 90, 193
Patrick, Lord Glamis, 106, 293
Thomas, Master of, 202, 292, 294
M.
MACBEATH, Thaynetus de Falkland,
218
Macdonald, Alexander, Earl of Ross,
Lord of the Isles, 67
John, Earl of Ross, 159
Macduff, Colban, Earl of Fife, 219
Duncan, Earl of Fife, 2 1 9, 220
Isabella, Countess of Fife, 221
Malcolm, Earl of Fife, 219
MacGibbon and Ross, " Castellated and
Domestic Architecture of Scotland,"
6, 63, 267
MacGilhys, Yothre, 16
McGuire, Colonel, 315
Mackay, General, 210
Mackenzie, Rev. Colin, 38
Sir George, Lord of Tarbat,
134
Kenneth, Earl of Seaforth,
125
Maclennan, Captain Donald, 38
McNeill, Sir John, 315
Magdalen, Queen of James V., 73, 131
Mahohegan, Gillespie, 66
Maidens' Castle. See Edinburgh Castle
Maitland, 64
Sir John, of Lethington , Lord
Maitland of Thirlestane,
100, 105, 106, 204, 243, 294
Samuel, 64
William of Lethington, 40,
87,91,93, 190
Malcolm II., 9
III. (Canmore), 9, 13, 22, 48,
147
IV. (The Maiden), 15, 16,
219
Malerbe, Gilbert, 151
Mansel, John, 50
Mar, Duncan, Earl of, 303
Ruadri, Earl of, 303
Earls of. See Erskine, Stewart,
and Talbot
Lady. See Bruce
Lodge, 311
Mormaer of, 303
March, Earls of. See Dunbar and
Stewart
Margaret, Queen of Alexander III., 49,
66
wife of Alexander, son of
Alexander III., 269
Queen of David II., 23, 154
— — Henry VI., 226,
276
James III., 60, 68,
1 60, 276
•• ~~~~ *'»i 3^» "9>
165, 175,
177, 227,
278-282
Malcolm III., 9—
13,48
daughter of James II., 160,
227
Robert I., 23
William the
Lion, 1 6
Mary of Gueldres, Queen of James II.,
19, 27, 29, 158, 224-226,
275
of Guise, Queen of James V., 34,
74, 179, 181-185, 232, 282-
285
Stuart, Queen of Scots, 5, 39,
76-91, 180, 234-238, 284-
290
daughter of James II., 160, 225,
227
Matilda, daughter of Robert I., 23
Mavinus, Master, 22
Maxwell, John, Bishop of Ross, 1 21
Earl of Morton, 95
Lord Maxwell, 38
Robert, Lord Maxwell, 177
William, 202
INDEX
329
Maxwell, William, Lord Herries, 100,
293
Meldrum, William, 28 1
Melrose, 32
Melville, Andrew, 1 1 2, 249
James, 248
Robert, 93
of Murdocairney, 288,
291, 293
Menteith, Earls of. See Comyn, Stewart
Margaret, Countess of, 26
Methven Castle, 24, 27, 29, 32, 36
Barons of. See Stewart
Michael, Captain, 92
Middleton, Colonel, 210
John, Lord Middleton, 125
Moncrieff or Skene, Helen, 265
Monk, General, 208, 209
Montague, Douglas-Scott, Sir William
Henry, Duke of Buccleuch, 142
Montgomerie, Hugh, Earl of Eglinton,
94, 177, 187
Montgomery, Longe de, 183
Monthermer, Ralph, Earl of Gloucester,
151
Montibus, Ebulo de, 153
Montrose, Earls and Marquess of. See
Graham
Moray, Andrew of, 220, 221
Bishop of, 121
Earls of. See Douglas, de
Dunbar, Randolph, Stewart,
and Stuart
Maurice de, 154
Patrick, 85
William de, 20
Morieson, Alexander, 253
Morton, Earls of. See Douglas and
Maxwell
J. C., " The Prince Consort's
Farms," 317
Mountjoy, King at Arms, 71, 229
Mowbray, Francis, 108
Sir Philip, 153
Munro, William, 38
Murchison, Sir Robert, 314
Murdoch, Duke of Albany, 25
Mure, Elizabeth, 224
Murray, Anne, daughter of Andrew,
264
David, 244
Lord Scone, 262
Viscount Stormont ,258,
262
Murray, Lord George, 300
Sir Gideon, of Elibank, 117
James, 113, 257
Earl of Annandale,
Viscount Stormont,
264
Duke of Athol, 138
John, Duke of Athol, 134, 265
Earl of Athol and Tulli-
bardine, 125,
264
Annandale, 258
Mungo, 264
Robert, 205
Mylne, Robert, 128
N.
NAIRN Castle, 16, 20
Namur, Due de, 53
Nasmyth, John, 251
Neville's Cross, Battle of, 19
Newcastle, 14
Newhaven, 32
Nicholas, St., Bishop, 277
Norham Castle, 230
Northumberland, Earls of. See Percy
O.
OCHILTREE, Barons. See Stewart
Ogilvie, James, Lord Ogilvie of Airlie,
100
Gentleman of James VI., 106
Old Deer, Bruxie in, 310
Oliphant, Laurence, Lord Oliphant, 90
Master of Oli-
phant, 198
William, 151
Orkney, Bishop of, 30, 86, 90, 99, 1 10,
1 88
Earls of. See St. Clair, Stewart
Orme, David, 103
Ormeston, John, 103
Robert, 103
Ormond, Duke of. See Butler
Earl of. See Douglas
Ossory and Ormond, Earl of. See
Butler
Otho of Saxony, 16
Owen, Professor, 314
d'Oysel, 236
330
INDEX
p.
PALMERSTON, Lord. See Temple
Patrick the Fool, 21
Patterson, John, Archbishop of Glas-
gow, 129
Peebles Castle, 14, 20, 29
Pembroke, Earl of. See Herbert
Percy, Anne, Lady Northumberland,
91
Henry de, 151
Henry, Earl of Northumber-
land, 32
Walter, 220
Perth Castle, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 32, 57
Duke and Earl of. See Drum-
mond
Pinkie Cleuch, Battle of, 183
Pitscottie, 177, 1 8 1, 231, 234, 280, 285
Pittard, Laird of, 81
Pittencrieff, 45
Plantagenet, Richard, Duke of Glouces-
ter, 161
Thomas, Earl of Lancaster,
I5I
Pluscarden, Chronicles of, 222
Pont, Master Robert, 102, 239
Preston family, 39
Sir Richard, Lord Dingwall,
37
Simon, 87
Prestonpans, Battle of, 137
R.
RADCLIFFE, Thomas, Earl of Sussex,
290
Raillie, Madame, 81
Rambouillet, Ambassador, 84
Ramsay, Sir John, Lord Both well, 161
Nicholas, 245
William, Earl of Fife, 221
Lord Ramsay of Dal -
housie, 127
Sir William, of Dalhousie, 19
Randolph, Sir Thomas, Earl of Moray,
28, 51
Reginald of Bath, 49
Riccio, David, 39, 85, 287
Richard II., 67, 155
Robert I., 2, 19, 20, 21, 29, 153, 273
II., 3, 20, 23, 55, 155, 274
Robert III., 3, 25, 55, 56, 222, 274
son of James VI., 41, 108
Robertson, Dr., 317
E. W., 9
Rokeby, Sir Thomas de, 154
Ros, Robert de, 50
William de, 150
Roslyn, Lady, 68
Ross, Hugh, Earl of, 20
Earls of. See Macdonald and
Stewart
Rothes, Dukes of. See Leslie and
Stewart
Earls of. See Leslie
Rothesay Castle, 6, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30,
34
St. Bridget's Chapel,
28
Dukes of. See Stewart
Roundabout Raid, 89
Roxburgh, Earl of. See Ker
Russell, Francis, Earl of Bedford, 186
Lord John, 313
Rutherglen Castle, 16, 24
Ruthven, Alexander, 250
Dorothea, Lady Gowrie, 104
John, Earl of Gowrie, 251
Joneta, Lady Ruthven, 83
Patrick, Lord Ruthven, 83,
85,86
William, Earl of Gowrie, 95,
198, 238
Lord Ruthven, 91,
ill, 188
Ruthven Raid, 95, 198
S.
SADLER, Ralph, 181, 182, 285
Saint Amville, 80
Saint Andrews, 24, 80
Archbishops of. See
Beaton, Burnet,
Hamilton, Spottis-
woode
Bishops of. See Lam-
berton, Traill
John, Bishop of, 49
Novum Hospitium, 239
Saint Clair, William, Earl of Orkney,
29
Saint Colme, Abbot of, 94
Saint John, Knights of, 270
INDEX
331
Salisbury, Marquess of. See Gascoyne-
Cecil
Sampson, Sir John, 150
Sanquhar, Lord. See Crichton
Sauchie Burn, Battle of, 62, 277
Scone, Abbey, 14
- Moot Hill, 9
Palace, 9, 13, 14, 23, 24, 25, 32
Lord. See Murray
Scott, James, 86
Sir James, 243
— Sir Walter, of Buccleuch, 191, 204
- William, 245
Scrope, John le, Lord Scrope de Bolton,
38
Seaforth, Earl of. See Mackenzie
Selkirk, 15
John, 223
Sempill, Robert, Lord Sempill, 187
Seton, 89
Alexander, Earl of Dunfermline,
1 1 8, 262
— Charles, Earl of Dunfermline, 259
George, 4th Lord Seton, 177
5th Lord Seton, 91, 93,
97, 187
— Patrick, 245, 262
— Robert, Lord Seton, 100
Seymour, Edward, Duke of Somerset,
184
Shaw, James, 161, 163
John, 102, 163
Patrick, 102
William, 1 02
Sheriffmuir, Battle of, 261
Sibbald, Robert, 210, 261, 264, 300
Sibylla, Queen of Alexander I., 13
Simson, Thomas de, 245
Simpson, General, 313
Sinclair, Edward, feuar of Roslyn, 93
John, Dean of Restalrig, 84
Skene, David, 265
Helen. See Moncrieff
of Hallyards, General Philip,
265
Smith, Mr. William, 312
Smythe, Patrick, 37
Solway Moss, 74, 233
Somerset, Duke of. See Seymour
Spottiswoode, John, Archbishop of Glas-
gow, 112
of St. An-
drews, 121
Spynie, Lord. See Lindsay
Stanley, Sir William, 88
Stirling Bridge, 185
Battle of, 150, 271
Stirling Castle, 3, 6, 8, 13, 15, 17, 30,
31, 57, 71, 72, 180,
146-217
Auldpark, 169
Ballingeich, 216
Gallow Hills, 169, 207,
209
Gowan Hill, 216
King's Knot, 216
Ladies' Rock, 216
Lions' Den, 215
St. Mary and St.
Michael's Church,
161
St. Michael's Chapel,
155
Mote Hill, 216
Over Hospital, 209
Red Tower, 1 74
White Tower, 162
Stirling, Luke, 281
Stevenson, James, 209
Stewart, Alan, 176
Alexander, Lord of Annan -
dale, 161
Duke of Albany,
39, 60, 62, 86,
227
Duke of Ross, 175
son of Murdoch,
Duke of Al-
bany, 155
Sir Andrew, 159
Andrew, Lord Avondale, 177
Ochiltree, 78,
81, 93, 104,
. 106
Colonel, 97, 199, 201, 239, 240
Charles Edward, 136, 211-
213, 299, 309
David, Duke of Rothesay, 56,
222
Esme, Seigneur d'Aubigny,
Duke of Lennox, 93, 94, 95,
96, 197, 238
Francis, Earl of Both well, 97,
99, loo, 102, 103,
104,190,241,243,
294
James, Earl of Moray,
35,36
332
INDEX
Stewart, Henry, Lord Darnley, 40, 83-
89,287
- - Lord Darnley, Earl of
Ross, 1 86, 187
- - Lord Darnley, Duke
of Albany, 83
- Henry, Lord Methven, 36, 91
Hercules, 103
- James, 103
- Captain James, 94
- Sir James, 157
- James Edward, 44
- - Earl of Arran, 239-
241
- - Duke of Lennox, 1 18
- Lord James, 76
- - - Earl of Mar, 79,
237
- - - Earl of Moray,
40, 80, 84, 88,
91, 185, 187,
190, 236, 288,
James, Duke of Ross, 30
- - Rothesay, 26
- son of James IV., Earl
of Moray, 31,
36, 165, 176,
286
- - James V., 233
- brother of Andrew, Lord
Avondale, 35
Jean, Countess of Argyll,
John, 21
Sir John, Baron Darnley, 159
John, Duke of Albany (Re-
gent), 72, 175, 231
- 24th Earl of Athol, 87,
91, 187, 1 88, 193
- 2 5th Earl of Athol, 100,
104, 193
- Earl of Lennox, 72,
176, 282
- - Mar, 39, 60,
i 60, 227
- - Mar, son of
James III.,
- - Traquair, 123
- son of Robert II., 34
- Lord of Coldingham,
78, 82
Lady Joneta, 83
Stewart, Ludovic, Duke of Lennox,
37, 102, 104, 109, 115, 117,
204, 251
Margaret, 31
Mary, Countess of Athol, 104
Matthew, Earl of Lennox, 82,
85, 90, 100, 181-183, 185,
190, 191, 285, 290
Murdoch, Duke of Albany,
25, 223
Robert, the Guardian, 154
Sir Robert, 117
Robert, Duke of Albany, son
of James V., 233
Earl of Carrick, 274
March, 238
Menteith and
Fife, 221
Menteith and
Fife, Duke
of Albany,
26,222,275
Orkney, 86,
94, 95,291,
292
Walter, Earl of Athol, 27, 224
Fife, 221
son of Murdoch, Duke
of Albany, 56, 155
William, 103
Sir William, 99
Stormont, Viscount. See Murray
Strabolgi, John de, Earl of Athol, 20
Strachan, Major, 208
Strath Irewin, 14
Strathbraan, 24
Barony, 27
Loch Fruchy, 27
Strathclyde, 14
Strathdee, 303
Strathmore, Lady, 142
Surrey, Earls of. See Howard and
Warenne
Sussex, Earl of. See Radcliffe
Sutherland, Earl of. See Gordon
T.
TALBOT, Sir Richard, Earl of Mar, 53
Tarbat, Lord of. See Mackenzie
Tarbet Castle, 17, 21, 30, 34
Taylor, John, the Water Poet, 306
Temple, Henry John, Lord Palmerston,
313
INDEX
333
Temple, Sir Richard, Baron Cobham, 300
Teviotdale, Men of, 19
Thomas the Bastard of Galloway, 49
Thurles, Lord. See Butler
Thweng, Sir Marmaduke de, 150
Torphichen, 270
Traill, Walter, Bishop of St. Andrews,
222
Traquair Castle, 14, 1 6, 20
Earl of. See Stewart
House, 15
Laird of, 85, 89
Tullibardine, Earl of. See Murray
Turgot, 10, 13
U.
URIAN, Cardinal, 49
V.
VALENCE, Aymer de, 151
Vanantyne, Martin, 26
Victoria, Queen of England, 142, 311-
317
Villiers, George, Duke of Buckingham,
"5
W.
WALDEGRAVE, Sir Richard de, 150
Wallace, James, 36
John, 36
Captain John, 133, 207
William, 36
Wallace, Sir William, 150, 153
Warbeck, Perkin, 32, 164, 229
Wardlaw, Sir Henry, 43
Warenne, John of, Earl Warenne, Earl
of Surrey, 150, 151
Waristoun, Lord. See Johnston
Warwick, Earl of. See Beauchamp
Wauchope, Andrew, 103
Waughton, Laird of, 237
Wedderburn, David, 257
Wellesley, Arthur, Duke of Wellington,
313
Wemyss, James, Lord Elcho, 136
West, Nicholas, 166
Westminster, Matthew of, 152
Wharton, Sir Thomas, Lord Wharton,
184
Wigtown Castle, 17
William I., 2
the Lion, 15, 16, 49, 148
Wood, Sir Alexander, 229
Andrew, of Largo, 235
Sir Andrew, 277
Wright, John, 223
Wurtemburg, Duke of, 112
Wyntoun, Andrew of, 25, 219
Y.
YARE, Henry, 86
Yester, Lord. See Hay
Yoletta, Queen of Alexander III.
51* J49
York, Duke of. See James
Young, George, 241
Peter, 189, 192, 196
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